The final event of the Sierra 2000 O'Fest was the Pacific Region Championships held at Burton Creek State Park on August 5-6. Over 300 orienteers participated in this event, including several Brits and one Aussie. The weather was clear and warm, although not as hot as the preceding events earlier in the week. The earlier start times also helped the runners.
The PRC was a two-day, combined total time, classic distance event. It was held on a new map of the area, completed just in time for the event. George Kirkov did the field checking and cartography. Kent Ohlund set the courses for Day 1, Joe Scarborough designed the orange and advanced courses for Day 2, and Bob Cooley set the white and yellow courses for Sunday. George Kirkov and Bob Cooley were the vetters.
The terrain, particularly in the eastern part, was relatively fast open woods and not very steep. The area is used as a cross country ski venue in the winter. However, the western portion of the map had much more green, with a lot of deadfall and manzanita, and was much slower and more difficult to orienteer in. Some of the red and blue runners complained about the slow going in that part of the map.
The assembly and registration area was at the North Tahoe High School. This provided ample free parking and toilets. We had tried to make arrangements to use the showers for the event, but the gymnasium floor was being replaced this summer, and therefore the showers were unavailable. The start areas were a short walk from the registration area, and the finish was in an open field to the east of the school.
This caused considerable last-minute problems, because it turned out that this small strip of land belonged to the Tahoe City Public Utility District, a fact unknown to the organizers prior to 5:00 p.m. Friday evening before the event. Several neighbors complained, and said that if we did not have a permit, that they would call the sheriff, and have us arrested for trespassing. Fortunately, I was able to contact Scott Haag, a staff person of the TCPUD, and he agreed to give us a permit, and met me at 6:30 Saturday morning just hours before the first start. I want to thank Scott for his cooperation and support.
In the elite M-21 class, the lead alternated among Andy Dale, Mikell Platt, and James Scarborough on Saturday, until the fifth leg, when James took the lead and did not relinquish it until the 15th control, when he made a 5 minute error, and dropped down to third. Andy then took the lead, and held it until the finish, with a time of 99:48, with Mikell coming in second in a time of 101:22, and James third with a time of 102:10. On Sunday, it was again the same three competitors alternating the lead for about the first 5 controls. Then Mikell made a 4 minute error on control 6, and about an 11 minute error on leg 8. At that time, he dropped out of the race.
Meanwhile, Andy has assumed the lead, and kept it to the finish with a final time of 90:52 compared to James' 93:59. Andy won the event with a total two day time of 190:40, with James in second with a total time of 196:09, and Eric Bone coming in third with a total 2 day time of 212:02. Syd Reader came in third on Sunday, but this was only good enough to bring him up to 6th overall because he had a difficult day on Saturday, coming in 13th.
Pavlina Brautigam won the F21 class easily with a total time of 187:31, over 38 minutes ahead of second place finisher Sharon Crawford. Joel Thomson won M45 even though he came in 4th on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday. His consistent performance prevailed with a total time of 208:32, about a minute and a half ahead of 2nd place finisher Nikolai Lemberg. The complete results are provided elsewhere in this Bulletin. This event was the first Pacific Region Championship. Members of USOF who live in the Pacific Region, which includes California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Hawaii, were eligible for this award.
The PRC Champions for 2000 are:
M21 James Scarborough, BAOC F21 Annabel Fernandez-Vallador, SDO M35 Neal Barlow, BAOC M40 Steve Gregg, BAOC M45 Joel Thomson, LAOC F20 Anneliese Steuben, BAOC F35 Nancy Pistole, LAOC F40 Debbie Wojtowicz, BAOC F45 Leslie Minarik, BAOC F50 Marsha Jacobs, BAOC F55 Lucy duPertuis, BAOC M50 Gary Carpenter, BAOC M55 Ron Hudson, LAOC M60 Rich Parker, SDO F60 Donna Gookin, SDO M65 Ed Gookin, SDO F14 Katherine Anthony, BAOC F12 Rachel Care, BAOC F10 Kelsey Wyatt-Mair, BAOC M12 Jaakko Karras, BAOC M10 Jukko Karras, BAOCOnce the last minute permit was obtained, the event ran relatively smoothly. We used SportIdent electronic punching, which provided very rapid results and splits to the competitors, who seemed to appreciate this service very much. However, the dust at the finish area caused problems with the printers, and on Sunday, we used the reserve printer, which also stopped functioning mid-way through the event. A back up printer was then called into play, but we ran out of ink for that one, and a fourth printer finally managed to print out final results and splits.
Custom made medals were presented to the top 3 finishers in all classes. In addition, Brunton provided free compasses to the winners of each class. The Pacific Region Champions also received a medal and a refrigerator magnet. Cash awards to the top 3 finishers in M21 and F21 were also given. The first place finishers received $150.00, the 2nd place finishers $50.00, and the third place finishers $25.00.
There was a Mexican dinner at the Tahoe Donner Community Center in Truckee Saturday evening. Ian Tidswell was the master of ceremonies, and in addition to the usual course reviews, a modified version of "Millionaire" was played. Brunton donated compasses for the prizes. The event and festival would not have been possible without the help of so many volunteers. Please see the separate article for those who helped out during the week.