World Rogaining Champs
Aussies take Second in WRC
Rob Preston / 02.11.2006
The World Rogaining Championships were held last weekend in the Warrumbungles National Park, about 500km NW of Sydney. It\'s not far from Dubbo, scene of next years Junior Orienteering World Championships. Famous for its clear skies for astronomy, and geological landmarks such as the ‘Breadknife’, international competitors were also treated with an abundance of wildlife. The event was a certainly a worthy World Championships, with tough hilly terrain, and temperatures high enough to fry an egg on your baseplate compass. Many teams suffered from dehydration, and one American competitor was unfortunate to suffer a brown snake bite (but fortunate to survive). The quality of the map was fantastic, and with 62 controls and 3500points on offer there were plenty of route choices to be made. My last 24hr Rogaine was about 5yrs ago, but I had been looking forward to the World Championships for quite a while. Having done a few moderate length Adventure Races recently I considered my sleep deprivation skills should have improved. In previous 24hr’s our usual tactic of ‘go hard, sleep a little, go hard again’ had worked ok since I usually struggle to make it through the whole night without a sleep. My regular rogaining partner, Andrew Hill, was unavailable due to competing in the Citychase World Champs in Chicago. I asked Damon Goerke (team member from Geoquest AR this year) if he was interested. Since he was about to run the Kokoda Track I suggested seeing how he recovered from that before making a commitment. Damon ran the tough 96km track in 19hrs finishing 3rd, and recovered well so he was pretty keen.
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