Photos from left: David Stocks, Shannon Jones, Rob Walter
A close finish is expected in the 2021-22 Runners Shop Twilight Series, which ends with race 13 at Narrabundah Hill on Wednesday. There are four possible top three placings. With the best seven scores from 13 events to count, the possible maximum is 875 points. The current leader, Matthew Crane, cannot improve on his 863 points as he is the UK visiting his parents. 2019-20 Series winner, Shannon Jones, currently on 862 points, could win with a top three placing or tie with Crane with a fourth. Fourth placed David Stocks, with a win, could tie for third on 861 points with Grace Crane, who is an unlikely starter on Wednesday.
On Wednesday evening, course planner for 2021-22 Runners Shop Twilight Series event 12 at Bruce Ridge, Martin Dent certainly delivered on his promise to provide Moderate courses, which were both physically and navigationally challenging, with a good mix of long and short legs, interesting control sites, some fast flat track running and then steep climbs up and down through the bush.
The across the line results for the two Moderate courses were:
- Moderate 1: 5.7 km, 16 controls: Men: 1. David Stocks 31 min 38 sec, 2. Ewan Shingler 34 min 30 sec, 3. Ryan Stocks 35 min 34 sec; Women: 1. Shannon Jones 41 min 28 sec, 2. Natalie Miller 49 min 20 sec, 3. Justine Hobson 53 min 35 sec.
- Moderate 2: 3.2 km, 150controls: Men: 1. Fedor Iskhakov 27 min 18 sec, 2. Hayden Dent 28 min 07 sec, 3. Toby Lang 20 min 10 sec; Women: 1. Elise Palethorpe 27 min 09 sec, Cath Chalmers 30 min 38 sec, Allison Jones 32 min 05 sec.
The full results are here and at Winsplits, and photos and maps are on Facebook.
After the handicap factors were applied, David Stocks was the winner with a corrected kilometre rate of 5 min 13.00 sec, which was marginally faster than for the shorter courses in bush settings this year. This was Stocks first win in a Twilight Series since December 2020.
The top 10 competitors in Race 12 were:
| Competitor | Handicap | Corrected km rate |
| David Stocks | 0.9400 | 5 min 13.00 sec |
| Shannon Jones | 0.7280 | 5 min 17.77 sec |
| Rob Walter | 0.8800 | 5 min 35.79 sec |
| Owen Radajewski | 0.8500 | 5 min 45.52 sec |
| Andy Hogg | 0.8500 | 5 min 46.86sec |
| Eric Morris | 0.8100 | 5 min 51.00 sec |
| Ewan Shingler | 0.9700 | 5 min 52.26 sec |
| Cath Chalmers | 0.6480 | 6 min 11.19 sec |
| Ryan Stocks | 1.0000 | 6 min 14.39 sec |
| Paul de Jongh | 1.0000 | 6 min 14.74 sec |
Shannon Jones, 2019-2020 Series winner, 124 points lifted her best seven scores to 862 points, putting her a close second to Matthew Crane on 863 points. David Stocks 125 points means he could tie with third placed Grace Crane on 861 points. The current top five with the best seven scores are:
- 863 Matthew Crane AO A
- 862 Shannon Jones AO A
- 861 Grace Crane AO A
- 856 David Stocks BS A
- 850 Hayden Dent RR A
The current standings are here.
The final event in the Runners Shop Twilight Series will be on Wednesday 2 March 2022 at Narrabundah Hill. Please note, the courses will close earlier than usual at 6.30 pm, as the presentation of Orienteering ACT Annual Awards for 2021, deferred from November 2021 will begin at 6.30 pm. The last awards to be presented on the evening will be the vouchers for the top three placings in the 2021-22 Runners Shop Twilight Series.