Oceania Sprint Knockout  | Sat 24 January
It was a flying start for the kiwis escaping NZ fickle summer weather for some warm sprint urban running in the NSW coastal area. The morning’s knockout qualification and quarter final sprints were based at St Peters College, Tuggerah, and the afternoon venue for the knockout semi-final and the Oceania knockout final was the Green Point Christian School. Both campuses provided a mix of paved areas, fields, out-of bounds gardens, buildings, and pathways with courses that were weaving through buildings around in loops creating a complicated spiderweb trail for many of us to follow from afar. A few mispunches from athletes revealed the challenges under pressure. Serious shoe damage control didn’t seem to harm Joseph Lynch’s  sprint finish to first place on the podium for the final Oceania Champs. 
In the women’s Sprint Oceania champs final PAPO coach Anna Taksdal placed fourth.  
A  women’s B final was held to complete the Oceania women’s podium as 3 of the final were non-Oceania nations so for final Oceania Championship places, Zara Toes finished in 4th place and Georgia Lindroos in 5th.

There were a number of mis-punches in the knockout as a great number of controls were out but SEA Malcom Ingham confirmed they were all the appropriate distance apart so rushing and map accuracy might be at fault. Nathan particularly had to work hard until his knockout race finish line  –  he was leading the last for controls until the last corner in a sprint finish.

KNOCKOUT RESULTS
M21 Final
1st Joseph Lynch

W21B Final
1st Zara Toes
2nd Georgia Lindroos
6th Niamh Hoare

Oceania individual Sprint  | Sun 25 January

The Individual Sprint was at Central Coast Grammar School. The terrain had many challenging  multi-levels, with map exchanges & map flips. Good to see Aston Key back running for Australia, but Joseph Lynch took gold in the lead by 47 seconds in the men’s class gaining automatic selection to the World Sprint Championship.
Joe says: “My experience was a very smooth run overall having familiarised myself thoroughly with the layout of the terrain from the map preparation I had done prior. Physically, I felt strong throughout and was able to make up most of my time in the final third of the course after the run-through.”
In the women’s Zara Stewart would have been the fastest 21E and not far behind NSW’s Erica Enderby but both Zara and Kaia Jorgensen had time losses in the finish area.

INDIV SPRINT RESULTS
M21E
1st Joseph Lynch
5th Felix Hunt
6th Nathan Borton
14th Tommy Hayes
17th Fergus O’Neill

W21E
2nd Zara Stewart
3rd Anna Taksdal
8th Kaia Joergensen
9th Briana Steven

M20E
5th Blake McKinnon
9th Sam Carryer
12th Solomon Randerson
16th William Wood
18th Oscar Burns

W20E
5th Zara Toes
6th Orla Hoare
7th Phoebe Hunt
13th Niamh Hoare
21stAmi McGowan
DQ Dora Slavich
MP Georgia Lindroos

Oceania Sprint Relay  | Mon 26 January
A strong and consistent team performance from NZ1, finishing in second place behind AUS1. NZL2 crossed the line close behind, but was later disqualified after a runner realised they had accidentally crossed an impassable waterway. Unfortunately NZL6 also recorded a mispunch.
It was an exciting and tightly contested race, with several lead changes along the way — including a thrilling moment when NZL2 briefly took the lead on leg 2 before Australia regained control. Zara Stewart and Zara Toes ran very well on the last leg to pass Australian teams and sprint-off against each other as second and third to finish.

RELAY RESULTS
2nd NZL1 Kaia Joergensen, Nathan Borton, Joseph Lynch, Zara Stewart  +1:12
7th NZL3  Briana Steven, Fergus O’Neill, Sam Carryer, Phoebe Hunt. +3:55
15th NZL4  Amber Riddle, Renee Beveridge, Oscar Burns, Orla Hoare +12:28
16th NZL5 Niamh Hoare, Solomon Randerson, William Wood., Ami McGowan +14:54
DQ NZL2 Georgia Lindroos, Felix Hunt, Blake McKinnon, Zara Toes
MP NZl6 Anna Taksdal, Layton Matthew, Toby Cooper, Dora Slavich