SILVA National Orienteering League decided for 2009

Sunday, 4 October 2009

Open Women Team Winners - Victoria Nuggets
Natasha Key, Jasmine Neve, Kathryn Ewels, Zoe Radford

The SILVA National league team trophies have a new name on them. Previously, only the Canberra Cockatoos and Victorian Nuggets had won senior team competitions, but this year the NSW Stingers emerged to run away with the men's title. They opened the season with a spectacular streak of 12 consecutive victories to give themselves what turned out to be an unbeatable lead. Julian Dent's late-season injury put paid to possibilities of a perfect score, but they still had more than enough in hand. It was much closer behind them, coming down to the Australian Relays, where the Canberra Cockatoos' win lifted them into a share of second place with the Southern Arrows.

The women's margin ended up being even larger as the Victorian Nuggets built progressively on their lead on home ground at the end of the season. It was tight between the Nuggets and the Cockatoos early on in the season, but the absence of Allison Jones for most of the second half of the season left a hole that the Cockatoos were unable to fill and the Victorians took full advantage. The Tassie Foresters held third for much of the season, but were severely depleted at the end of the season and were overtaken by the consistent Queensland Cyclones.

The Victorian Nuggets took another title when a good final week saw them pull clear in a close junior men's competition. It was even closer behind them than it was at the front, to the extent that the Cockatoos were fifth at the start of the final leg of the Australian Relays and second at the end of it. The Queensland Cyclones once again won the junior women's competition, ahead of the Cockatoos.

Junior Men SILVA National League Winners
Lachlan Dow (2nd), Max Neve (1st), Joshua Blatchford (3rd)

Junior Women SILVA National League Winners
Bridget Anderson (3rd), Belinda Lawford (=1st), Aislinn Prendergast (=1st)