Upset For Elite Orienteers

In a shock upset, the New Zealand representative A. Brown (Central) defeated a high class field, which included the national representatives C. W. Battley, J. Ralston and D. Townsend, to win the elite orienteering race held in the north Woodhill State Forest yesterday morning.

There was another shock when the senior C course was declared "no contest" by the course setter when it was discovered that uncorrected clue sheets had been issued to some competitors.

By skilful orienteering Brown defeated much faster runners over a difficult course in the good time of 2h 9m 43s.

The Commonwealth Games athletics representative Anne Garrett won the women's senior race in 2h 45m and P. Hewlett (North Shore) had his first win of the season to take the senior B event.

A feature of the day, conducted by the Pupuke club, was the large number of juvenile competitors and the fact that more than one family group included babes in arms.

Results (M, men; W, women):
Senior: M21A (elite): A. Brown (Central), 2h 9m 43s, 1; C. W. Battley (Pupuke), 2h 12m 56s, 2; J. Ralston (Pupuke), 2h 23m 22s, 3; D. Townsend (Pupuke), 2h 36m 5s, 4; R. Jenner (North Shore), 2h 43m 32s, 5; A. Nicholls (Bay of Plenty), 3h 7m 22s, 6; B. Walker (Bay of Plenty), 3h 15m 33s, 7.
M21B: P Hewlett (North Shore), 3h 12m 42s, 1.
M21C: (no contest): J. Gregory (Pupuke), 2h 27m 44s.
W50: E. Moen (Central), 2h 51m, 1.
W19A: A. Garrett (Pupuke), 2h 45m, 1.
W19B: R. Hall, J. Scown, M. Hedderwick, 2h 57m 15s, 1.
M19B: R. Chandler, 2h 9m 16s, 1.
Veterans: M35: J. Denyer (Central), 2h 30m 24s, 1.
M17: P. Murphy (Central), 3h 10m, 1.
M15: B. Bridgeman, 2h 13m 46s, 1.
M12: M. Murphy (Central), 2h 5m 40s, 1.
Novice individual: I. Morley, 1h 10m, 1; R. Johnson, 1h 22m 38s, 2; L. Smith, 1h 41m 40s, 3.
Women: M. Nicholls (Bay of Plenty), 61m 56s, 1.
Groups: Johnson family, 65m, 1; Jones/Grove family, 1h 2m 40s, 2; Conyers family, 1h 7m 30s, 3.