The Sprints at Point Pinole
Date: (Sun.) Feb. 24, 2008
Location: Richmond, CA
Event Director: 
- 510.779.8808
Course Setter: Steve Gregg
Type: C; Prologue and Chase sprint courses, plus White, Yellow, and Orange courses
Related Information
Event Announcement RouteGadget - Introduction RouteGadget - Event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=122&kieli=) Control Descriptions
Event Write-Up
By
Harold DeMoss said "What's the big deal? Orienteering meets in Cumbria are always like this!" Okay, maybe he was exaggerating just a little bit. But we were all certainly happy to have Harold in the parking lot at 8:30 AM, as none of the rest of us had any experience setting up tents in sustained, cold winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour! Harold finally said "You can't put up tents at all in this weather, so you're going to do both registration and epunch out of your cars in the parking lot." And that is exactly what we did. I apologize to any of you who were confused by this last-minute change in venue.
But all in all it was a good day for orienteering. Thankfully it hardly rained at all during the event (that would have made the conditions truly intolerable), nor had it rained enough prior to the event to make the ground muddy and slow. And in February the grass is still short (having recently been grazed by goats—see below) and pleasant to run on. Overall I would categorize the terrain as "sloshy but fast"—particularly the Prologue course, which was a "one-way" course and was run with the strong winds primarily at the runner's backs.
Francois Leonard took advantage of the conditions to blaze through the 2.8-km Prologue course in a time of 12 minutes 22 seconds. That is a pace of 4.4 minutes per kilometer, which is on par with James Scarborough's best performances on these sorts of courses back in his prime. That put Francois over 2 minutes ahead of his closest competitors, and gave him the luxury to make ultra-safe route choices during the Chase, to ensure his overall victory. Nonetheless, Francois still had the best Chase time of all the competitors. But Martin Kunz ran a very strong Chase as well, and only lost seven more seconds on Francois to wrap up second place overall. Tapio Karras put together two solid races and was never challenged for third place overall.
There was one potential problem (thankfully avoided), and one actual problem with the event. I was informed three days before the meet that not only would goats be grazing in the park on Sunday, but also that no one was exactly sure where the goats would be. Fortunately the goats were not grazing in a location where controls were set, or that runners would need to go through, so that crisis was avoided. The actual problem was the theft of two Epunch units before the event. Thanks to those first Prologue runners who took the time to rehang the control bags back in their approximate locations. Since the problem was discovered and corrected so quickly, not too many runners were greatly affected by this act of vandalism. It's always discouraging to all of us when these sorts of things happen, though.
I had a lot of volunteer help at this event. Thanks to everyone who responded to my requests for help. Since, due to the rough weather conditions, there were very few White/Yellow/Orange runners in attendance, I did not even need all the help that I had recruited, and so many of my volunteers spent quite a bit of time standing around, waiting for me to find something for them to do! I even had to tell Mark Blair that control pickup was completely taken care of, and that he could go home early. Thanks to all of the following people: Bob Cooley (map printing), Toby and Cameron Ferguson, Steve Beuerman, and Jeff Lanam (Epunch), James Wilson and Martin Kunz (registration), Alan Hauser (beginner's clinics), Harold and Penny DeMoss, Greg Ehrensing, Adam and Becky Redfield, and Ruth Kadel (setup, starts, general help at the staging area), Mikkel Conradi, Adam and Becky Redfield, and Mike Behrens (control pickup). Also thanks to my many vetters: Ben Legg, Rex Winterbottom, Mikell Conradi, Joan Roos, Jennifer Kerr, and Jim Fish. I apologize to anyone else who helped out at the event in any capacity and whom I have forgotten about.
Results
Point Pinole
Richmond, CA
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Pl Name(s) Time Comment
White Course (3.1 km, 50 m climb, 10 controls)
1 David Harrison 47:39
2 Davy & Sarah Williams 51:35
3 Diane Hall & Harker 1:00:04
4 Sammi Aylett, Kathryn Stutz 1:02:04
5 Williams family 1:05:25
6 Kaeden Wemmer 1:29:26
Yellow Course (3.3 km, 50 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Barbara Robben, Anders Fox 51:30
2 Mike Long 53:05
3 Richard Burton 1:08:26
4 Masha Konkov 1:13:43
5 Jeff Bennett 2:29:01
6 Michael Lavg 2:29:09
Orange Course (3.4 km, 65 m climb, 11 controls)
1 Greg Ehrensing 34:16
2 Irene Stefanova 38:54
3 Carl & Gavin Williams 40:39
4 Nigel Killeen 43:25
5 Alan Houser 44:09
6 Jay Hann 45:10
7 Marina Keating 53:19
8 Paul Kathy Li 57:50
9 Josh Jones team 58:38
Prologue Course (2.8 km, 20 m climb, 14 controls)
1 Francois Leonard 12:22
2 Tapio Karras 14:43
3 Martin Kunz 14:59
4 Derek Maclean 16:06
5 Piers Newbery 17:01
6 Kent Ohlund 17:19
7 Cameron Ferguson 17:27
8 Toby Ferguson 17:48
9 James Wilson 17:54
10 Russell Neilson 17:58
11 Fyodor Konkov 18:48
12 George Minarik 19:23
13 Dan Greene 19:36
14 Bob Strauss 19:43
15 Matthias Kohler 20:19
16 Steve Harrison 20:33
17 Stephanie Maclean 20:45
18 Mark Blair 20:51
19 Brad Wetmore 21:04
20 Joe Scarborough 22:26
21 Michael Behrens 23:33
22 Marie-Josee Parayre 24:04
23 Fritz Menninger 24:10
24 Julia Doubson 26:51
25 Johanna Merriss 28:06
26 Stefan Stefanov 28:08
27 David Jorgensen 31:55
Chase Course (3.8 km, 75 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Francois Leonard 21:35 0
2 Martin Kunz 21:42 +1
3 Tapio Karras 23:53 -1
4 Matthias Kohler 25:05 +11
5 Russell Neilson 25:55 +5
6 Toby Ferguson 26:43 +2
7 Piers Newbery 27:06 -2
8 Steve Harrison 27:11 +8
9 Kent Ohlund 27:32 -3
10 Brad Wetmore 27:53 +9
11 Derek Maclean 28:17 -7
12 Fyodor Konkov 28:27 -1
13 Cameron Ferguson 29:47 -6
14 George Minarik 30:15 -2
15 Bob Strauss 30:16 -1
16 Mark Blair 31:26 +2
17 Dan Greene 32:05 -4
18 Fritz Menninger 33:28 +5
19 James Wilson 33:56 -10
20 Stephanie Maclean 34:05 -3
21 Stefan Stefanov 39:02 +5
22 David Jorgensen 39:15 +5
23 Marie-Josee Parayre 40:39 -1
24 Joe Scarborough 43:47 -4
Michael Behrens MSP
Natasha Doubson MSP
Julia Doubson DNS
Johanna Merriss DNS
Right-hand column above is place change from Prologue.
Prologue + Chase Courses
Prologue Chase Total Plc
Pl Name Time Pl Time Pl Time Chg
1 Francois Leonard 12:22 1 21:35 1 33:57 0
2 Martin Kunz 14:59 3 21:42 2 36:41 1
3 Tapio Karras 14:43 2 23:53 3 38:36 (1)
4 Russell Neilson 17:58 10 25:55 5 43:53 6
5 Piers Newbery 17:01 5 27:06 7 44:07 (1)
6 Derek Maclean 16:06 4 28:17 11 44:23 (3)
7 Toby Ferguson 17:48 8 26:43 6 44:31 3
8 Kent Ohlund 17:19 6 27:32 9 44:51 (2)
9 Matthias Kohler 20:19 15 25:05 4 45:24 6
10 Cameron Ferguson 17:27 7 29:47 13 47:14 (3)
11 Fyodor Konkov 18:48 11 28:27 12 47:15 0
12 Steve Harrison 20:33 16 27:11 8 47:44 4
13 Brad Wetmore 21:04 19 27:53 10 48:57 6
14 George Minarik 19:23 12 30:15 14 49:38 (2)
15 Bob Strauss 19:43 14 30:16 15 49:59 (1)
16 Dan Greene 19:36 13 32:05 17 51:41 (4)
17 James Wilson 17:54 9 33:56 19 51:50 (7)
18 Mark Blair 20:51 18 31:26 16 52:17 0
19 Stephanie Maclean 20:45 17 34:05 20 54:50 (2)
20 Fritz Menninger 24:10 23 33:28 18 57:38 3
21 Marie-Josee Parayre 24:04 22 40:39 23 1:04:43 1
22 Joe Scarborough 22:26 20 43:47 24 1:06:13 (2)
23 Stefan Stefanov 28:08 26 39:02 21 1:07:10 3
24 David Jorgensen 31:55 27 39:15 22 1:11:10 3
Michael Behrens 23:33 21 MSP
Julia Doubson 26:51 24 DNS
Johanna Merriss 28:06 25 DNS
Natasha Doubson DNS MSP
"Plc Chg" is places gained(lost) in the Chase (Prologue Pl - Overall Pl)
_______________
DNS = Did not start
MSP = Mispunched (one or more controls wrong)