Most of the comments from the eight competitors who provided feedback about the 2019 Jim Sawkins Memorial Handicap were positive. This was the 12th staging of this annual event, created in memory of Red Roos club stalwart, Jim Sawkins (pictured in the featured image on his way to winning the 2006 Australian 3-Days).
Over the 12 years, the event has undergone many changes and this year another format was used. For the past few years, the event was a mass-start, multiple-looped (‘Hagaby’ format) race, but this year the venue did not suit that format. So, while there were mass-starts, instead of multiple loops or forking, each course had very long legs to the first control, with multiple route choices. Many competitors took the same route, but for some courses, the more discerning competitors were able to find a route which gave them a faster run to the first control. The course maps and photos from the event are on Facebook. The Results are here and the Winsplits are here
Competitors’ times were ‘corrected’ in accordance with the same Age/Gender factors used for the ACT League competition to determine the divisional winners. Division 1 (open) is based on the Red 1 course and Division 2 (all except men aged 21 to 34) is based on all other Red courses. The top three in each division were:
- Division 1: 1 Martin Dent, 2 Matthew Crane, 3 Matt Doyle.
- Division 2: 1 Ella Cuthbert, 2 Jo Allison, 3 Judy Allison.
The complete table of rankings is here.
The event was also ACT League # 6 and the top five on the day in that competition were:
- 138 Ella Cuthbert
- 137 Martin Dent
- 136 Matthew Crane
- 135 Jo Allison
- 134 Matt Doyle
Cuthbert has moved to the top of the League table on 539 points from her best four scores, just ahead of Ana Herceg on 533 and Crane on 530 points. The full standings are here.
The was another ‘Two-Bob’ event (Bob Allison and Bob Mouatt) the first of which was a National League (Hagaby event) at Arachnicopia (Stromlo West) in May 1996.
Feedback
As already indicated, the feedback provided through the OACT website results page was positive. Some examples are:
- Red 4: Physically hard. Good route choices over first long leg. Slightly tricky control 14 near end when I thought hard work done! EW
- Red 4: Good long first leg (to 148) with viable options to split the field straight off; other long legs (to 151 and 155) provided viable options too. Good control selection and variation in leg lengths, and different skills tested. Maybe 149 was superfluous between 153 and 138. Enjoyable event which ran smoothly with good use of the area. DJ
- Orange 1: Good length, good mixture of long and short legs. Many of the legs could be done with tracks as handrails. It was an Orange course, but a couple more “cross country” legs would have been good (where there were good natural features). Anon.
- Red 4: Appropriate difficulty. Enjoyable longer legs. Just a very minor point, the map was printed on unnecessarily large paper. The map was great. My GPS trace aligned with the map detail (using the QuickRoute software) really well. GW.
- Red 3: Excellent course for a mass start, with lots of route choice throughout. Nice map. Thanks for a great event. GP
- Red 5: Varied terrain. Flags clearly posted. Possible to avoid difficult vegetation. Organisation excellent. Clear directions. Plenty of encouragement for undecided starters. GD
- Red 3: It was a great course. I actually like the map and area now after previously not being a huge fan of it. AP
- Orange 1: Lovely balance of open running and moderate navigation. CW
Thanks for the feedback and more feedback can be posted here.
Divisional winners from left: Martin Dent and Ella Cuthbert
