Round 2 of the National Orienteering League was held in Canberra, ACT over 7-8 March and consisted of one middle distance and two sprint distance races.

Caitlin Young has taken the lead in the National Orienteering League after winning two of the three races in Canberra over the March long weekend. Along with her win in the Oceania Sprint, that gives her three wins for the season, ahead of Nea Shingler who has won the other two, including the mass-start race in Canberra.

The men’s individual competition is closer with three separate winners in Canberra; Aston Key in the individual sprint, Angus Haines in the mass-start and David Stocks in the middle distance (where Julian Dent fell eight seconds short of becoming the first M40 to win a National League race). With the two Oceania Sprint races won by New Zealand’s Joseph Lynch, Haines holds a narrow lead in the overall standings over the consistent Kylian Wymer, who took three third places back from Canberra.

Cooper Horley showed he has returned to form after illness derailed his Oceania campaign, with two wins and a second over the weekend in the junior men’s. Elye Dent won the mass-start event (and beat all the seniors in the process, as Horley did in the individual sprint) and holds the overall competition lead ahead of Owen Radajewski, a placegetter in all three races in Canberra.

Katherine Maundrell won both sprint events in Canberra and has taken the overall lead in the junior women’s. Again impressive, after her second in the Oceania knockout sprint, was the first-year W16 Ella Clauson, who took out the middle distance over Milla Key and was third outright in the mass-start.

The Southern Arrows, who have yet to win a senior team National League title, are dominating the senior women’s event, and are competitive in the senior men’s too, four points behind the Victorian Vikings. The Canberra Cockatoos lead both junior competitions, with a perfect score so far in the men’s, although the Tassie Foresters are pushing them hard in the women’s. The NSW Stingers, who have dominated for the last three years, are finding it harder now that Nea Shingler has graduated to seniors and are in third.

Report courtesy of Blair Trewin.