The Cyclones Summer Series has 3 aims; to assist in fund raising for the team, to give all athletes a good competitive basis for the season and to attract new participants from other sports and interests. The series has successfully achieved all of its aims for the third year.
The 4 Park O events attracted over 180 competitors over 4 Saturdays, with at least 1/3 being new to Orienteering. The competition was sponsored by Brisways who donated some excellent awards for the various age classes. A number of Cyclones also set courses and organised the events. Winners of the series were calculated in the best 3 from 4 races. Overall winners were Wendy Read in the Women’s and Kieran Sullivan in the Men’s. Kieran was also instrumental in course setting at one event and assistance at each event and is setting an excellent standard for others to follow.
The Cyclones also re-introduced Night Orienteering to the Queensland calendar with 50 competitors challenging a Brisbane stormy night. Dane Cavanagh made great use of Sportident to set a series of intricate courses on a very small bush map close to the city. Again Kieran Sullivan dominated, completing the 6.7Km Long course in 54 minutes. The best Woman on the long course was Bridget Anderson. Other winners were Julia Davies (Medium) and Gary Flynn (Short).
Anna Sheldon
The final event of the summer series was the Queensland Sprint Championships run on the new Geoff Peck map of GriffithUniversity, in hot conditions. The event attracted over 100 competitors with 5 age classes for Men and Women, and a short course for the less competitive. Cyclones also welcomed back Olly Mitchell, still on crutches after his brush with a large truck, but looking very positively towards the future. The event was run adjacent to the Queensland Athletics Championships and added to the flavour of athletic competition in the area. In the 21 Elite Men’s class Dane Cavanagh set the pace until control 7 only to lose the lead to Kieran Sullivan and then make a significant mistake to let Daniel Stott and Mark Nemeth into the placings. Kieran went on to make a clean sweep of the summer events with a time of 21 minutes for the 2.9Kms. In the 21E Women Krystal Neumann shot into the lead and held on until Control 4 where she relinquished the lead to a slow starting Anna Sheldon, who went on to win the race comfortably (19 minutes for 2.5Kms). All other runners were bunched very closely together until the last 2 controls when Julia Davies and Rachael Effeney emerged from the pack to take 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The series has been a great success and the Cyclones have now given themselves a good athletic and financial base for the season. Full results of all races can be found atwww.oq.asn.au
Terry Cavanagh