AUSTRALIANS HAVE SUCCESS
Orienteering Contest At Waihou
By Our Orienteering Correspondent

Australia gave New Zealand a hiding in the second Rothmans international Australian orienteering championships held over a rugged but excellent course in Waihou forest yesterday.

S. Lantz, the Australian champion, won the Australasian title with a brilliant run over the six mile course in 1h 22m 7s. The aggregate rise thoughout the course was over 2000ft.

Two other Australians, A. Tarr and I. Herbert, took second and third places before the first New Zealander, C. Battley, crossed the finishing line.

Tarr and Herbert completed the physically demanding course in 1h 30m 17s and 1h 31m 3s respectively, while Battley was timed at 1h 36m 36s, another first-class time.

Australia was timed at 6h 11m 27s and New Zealand at 6h 56m 57s on their first four scoring runners, thus Australia improved their winning margin last year of 14m by slightly more than half an hour.

In defence of New Zealand this was the first in which fully contoured maps have been used for an event in this country and this presented some difficulty to them.

But nothing could detract from the performance of the Australians. D.Townsend and D. A. G. Pirie of New Zealand, ran soundly to defeat R. Harris and D. Hogg, of Australia, while the New Zealand captain, R. M. Doherty, ran his usual splendid race to finish ninth and come in fourth for New Zealand.

The Australian manager, T. Andrews, badly handicapped by a muscular injury, could not be dissuaded from starting even by the insistent urging of his team, and ran a first-class race for 12th place.

R. Jenner, who narrowly missed the reserve position in the New Zealand team, sprang a surprise, the parallel of C. Benson, of Australia, in last year's contest, to win the New Zealand title in 1h 31m 49s, 4m 47s faster than Battley.

Miss Anne Garrett, the Auckland champion, won the New Zealand intermediate women's title and beat all the intermediate men in doing so.

Miss Margaret Vercoe, who has a natural ability for the sport, won the junior women's national championship.

Miss Margaret Benton ran the course in reverse order which unfortunately earned her disqualification after recording fastest time in her event.

Results:
Australasian Championship: S. Lantz (Australia), 1h 22m 7s, 1; A. Tarr (Australia), 1h 30m 17s, 2; I. Herbert (Australia), 1h 31m 3s, 3; C Battley (New Zealand), 1h 36m 34s, 4; D. Townsend (New Zealand), 1h 41m 20s, 5; D. A. G. Pirie (New Zealand), 1h 43m 38s, 6; R. Harris (Australia) 1h 48m, 7; D. Hogg (Australia), 1h 54m 50s, 8; R. M. Doherty (New Zealand), 1 h 55m 20s, 9; P. C. Cunningham (New Zealand), 1h 57m 45s, 10; R. Dominish (Australia), 2h 10m 7s, 11; T. Andrews (Australia) 2h 20m 3s, 12; R. King (New Zealand) 3h 28m 45s, 13; A. Nicholls (New Zealand), did not finish.

Teams: Australia (Lantz, Tarr, Herbert, Harris), 6h 11m 27s, 1;
New Zealand (Battley, Townsend, Pirie, Doherty) 6h 56m 57s, 2.

New Zealand Championships:
Senior men: R. Jenner, 1h 31m 49s, 1.
Women - Intermediate: A. Garrett, 1.
Junior: M. Vercoe, 1; P. Vercoe, 2; F. McGregor, 3.
Intermediate men: P. Wilson, 1; R. Stephenson, 2; R. Davie, 3.
Junior men: D. McGregor, 1.