SSW – Vikings Light on Quantity, High on Quality

While the Victorian Vikings may have been light on Quantity at the Sydney Sprint weekend, they made up for it by showing what Qualities are in the squad.

The 1^st Race was at the University of Sydney, and with Aston Key not being available for this round of NOL events, all eyes were on who would fill the top spot in M21E. That went to Pat Jaffe, with a close 8 sec victory over Alastair George, with Brodie Nankervis in 3^rd place. Bruce and Mason Arthur in 12^th and 16^th made up the rest of the Vikings team. In W21E, Tara Melhuish had a 1 sec win over Caitlyn Young, with Natasha Key being the 1^st Viking in 5^th place.

But some of the runs of the day were going to come from our Junior Vikings. Callum White has showed us over the years that he has the ability, and he proved that to us by having his 1^st NOL victory with a comfortable 23 sec win over Sam Woolford, with Cooper Horley in 3^rd. Not to be outdone, team mate Milla Key also showed us her class, with an easy 2^nd place behind the very fast Nea Shingler, whose team mate Eszter Kocsik took 3^rd place

The next race of the day was the Sprint Relay at University of NSW. There were only 4 Junior Vikings available, and the selectors decided to keep them as a team, even though 2 of them were good enough to make the Senior Team. Milla Key got the team of to a good start with 5^th, Callum White went through a few teams to bring the Vikings into 2^nd place after 2 legs, then Lucas Kent, having his 1^st race for the Vikings, ran a good steady race to hand over to Sophie Taverna in 6^th place, before Sophie cleaned up a couple of teams, and bought the Vikings home for the 3^rd spot on the Podium.

In the Senior Relay, the team was Natasha Key, Mason Arthur, Pat Jaffe and Melanie Kent. With a couple of new members in the team, the Vikings weren’t looking to be in the top few places, but just wanted good clean runs from all concerned, which did happen. Our thanks go out to Mason and Melanie for stepping up, because without them, we have no team.

The Knock Out Sprint started Sunday morning at St Gregory’s College, Campbelltown, with the qualifying race.  All the Vikings that we expected to get through to the round of 36 made it without any surprises. Bruce Arthur, with Melanie and Lucas Kent, were eliminated in the next round, and didn’t go through to the last 18.

We now shifted to Western Sydney University, Campbelltown for the Semi Final and Final. With all the Women Vikings drawn in the same Heat, there was always going to be one missing out. With Milla Key out kicking her mum, Natasha for the win, this left Sophie Taverna in 4^th place and out of the KO Sprint for this year. In a very tight race in the men’s Semi, Cooper Horley put an end to Callum White’s ambition, relegating him back to 3^rd place, only 1 sec behind, but out of the competition. Mason was also eliminated in the Semi’s with a gallant 5^th place.

Now onto the Final. This was Milla Key’s race. After sitting comfortably in the pack of 6, she grabbed the chance to go to the lead with a couple of controls to go, and held on for a very well deserved 1^st place. Her mum, try as she could, couldn’t run her down, and had to settle for 3^rd place behind Tara Melhuish.

In the Mens Field, Pat Jaffe had been winning everything he ran in this weekend, but there was 1 race to go, and some of the best Orienteers to contend with. As the race went through the Spectator Point, all of the 6 remained together. But a hesitation by Pat in the later part, dropped him back a bit, and he couldn’t make up the lost places, leaving Euan Shingler to take top spot, with Angus Haines in 2^nd and Pat back in 3^rd, only 6 secs behind, but ruing the one that got away.

Some great photos can be found HERE on Facebook.