Orienteering internationals David Schneider and Jo Allison had comfortable victories in today’s ACT Mountain Running Championships on Mt Tennent.

The two minute win by the well performed Allison, the Australian orienteering champion, in the women’s 8.3kms in 54 mins 2 secs was expected, with greatly improved Weston Creek runner Leanne Wilkinson runner-up in 56:03, and Queensland veteran Hubertein Wichers third in 57:09. Danielle Winslow was 4th in 59:57 on the course which had 850m of climb.

Schneider, the orienteering champion of Switzerland, a country renowned for both its stunning mountain scenery and its elite mountain runners, caused a major upset in leading from start to finish to defeat an ACT men’s field containing four of the top five members of the Australian mountain running team. He took only 32 minutes to reach the half way point at the summit and just over 25 minutes for the remainder of the 12kms climbing 1000m, setting a course record of 57:45. Dual Australian champion Ben Dubois of Wollongong was second in 58:56, with fellow Australian team members from Wollongong, Barry Keem and Stephen Brown, next in 59:06 and 59:49.

South Canberra Tuggeranong Tour de Mountain champion Stuart Doyle caused a boilover by taking out the ACT resident title in 60:47 from North Canberra Gungahlin’s Australian representative David Osmond who ran 60:47, with veteran orienteer Anthony Scott third in 63:09. Other orienteers to perform well included:

Trevor Jacobs, 6th outright and 1st M50 in 66:29
Tim Sawkins, 2nd M40 behind Anthony Scott
Michael Burt, 3rd M45
Hugh Moore, 2nd M55, running the 6km course with 700m climb in 46:53
Carol Harding, 2nd W45
Results are up on the AMRA web-site.*
The Australian Championships will be conducted over the same courses on Mt Tennent on 29th April.

John Harding

*website no longer available