Hawke's Bay orienteers were major contributors to New Zealand's domination of the relays and winning of the Southern Cross Trophy at the Australian schools orienteering event which ended in Queensland yesterday.
``Relays always seem to provide the major drama in the schools events and this year's competition was no exception,' said
Hawke's Bay's Derek Morrison who managed the Kiwi contingent.
New Zealand held a slender overnight lead, 30 points to Queensland's 28, and Queensland competed strongly yesterday, with a stunning run from Kurt Neumann carrying his team from fourth to first on the last leg of the junior boys race. At this stage, the two New Zealand senior teams needed to overtake at least one competitor each on the last leg to tie the Southern Cross Challenge.
Fortunately for New Zealand, the two Hawke's Bay winners from the previous day were up to the task, with Scott McDonald running patiently to be with the Queenslander at the spectator control before opening up more than a minute's lead in the short final loop carrying New Zealand to victory in the senior boys race. This was after sound runs from Hawke's Bay's Duncan Morrison and Aucklander Toby Scott.
Following this finish, Kate Morrison then held her nerve in the final loop to overtake the Tasmanian team and hang on to a 16-second gap to take third place. The other runners in her team were fellow Bay competitor Rachel Goodwin, who had led the race at the first changeover, and Aucklander Nicola Peat.
Earlier in the day, the New Zealand junior girls had trounced the field with an emphatic nine minutes 25 seconds winning margin and the three fastest times of the day.
Their team comprised Hutt Valley's Jula McMillan, Canterbury's Selena Metherell and Hutt Valley's Laura Robertson.
At the conclusion of the event, it was discovered some of the junior boys teams had been given incorrect maps and the junior boys relay was subsequently invalidated, which meant New Zealand won the trophy by three points - 52-49 over Queensland.
