This weekend is often considered the most tense on the elite calendar, the weekends SILVA National Orienteering League including the major selection races for the Australian World Orienteering Championships team. If the pressure of this was not enough by itself, there is also an Australian – New Zealand Test match, the local Bushrangers taking on the Pinestars for trans-Tasman bragging rights.

Races begin on Saturday morning around the fast and furious campus grounds of Macquarie University in Sydney. A quick trip south along the highway and competitors will race from 2pm on the highly technical and challenging Wattle Ridge map near Hill Top in the Southern Highlands. If that hasn’t tired them out then on Sunday morning competitors face a long distance race (10km for women’s elite, 15km for the men) in the physically tough terrain around Belanglo.

Stay tuned for a tense weekend of racing in which competitors hoping to make it to the World Championships in Norway in August have their last chance to show their worth. If you need a reminder of this year’s form runners, then have a quick peek at the video report from the final day of the Easter twenty10 carnival below.