Event report: MetrO 1

The first event of the 2025-26 MetrO Series was held in Bull Creek, starting at Oberthur Primary School, and what a day it was! We had the biggest turnout to a MetrO event possibly ever, forcing the setter to frantically print out an extra 40 maps 30 minutes before the start time and we only ended up with 1 spare!

159 maps handed out, total numbers were probably pushing 200, mainly filled with Oberthur Primary School families coming to give it a try for the first time. Due to the high numbers of on the day registrations, we needed to push back the start time by 10 minutes, so everyone was able to get registered. It was hectic, it was stressful, but we are over the moon with the number of attendees. We hope to see some of the new faces again and the setter hopes that some of the kids become as interested in orienteering as he has since he was introduced to it at Oberthur 9 years ago.

On the courses there were 29 controls total with the short needing to get 6, the medium requiring 13 and the long demanding 21. With controls located all around the start, the swarm of people split off into various directions flooding nearby streets. Some dodgy control descriptions due to a printing error may have caused some mistakes but hopefully the skeleton and jack-o’-lantern at spooky control 13 made up for it.

The podium for the short course men had Ian Fletcher in 3rd, Fraser Brownlie in 2nd and Tony Simpkins in 1st with a time of 17:18. For the women, Helen Post came 3rd, Vicky Brownlie came 2nd and Carol Brownlie took the win in 19:49, making it a WOW top 3. Out of the many groups of kids and families, Hyan’s group came 3rd, Tara’s group came 2nd and Deanne’s group zoomed around in 18:01.

For the medium, the men’s podium had Tom Brownlie in 3rd, Eli Goodchild in 2nd and Nick Dale taking the victory in 26:20. In the women’s, Liisa Hirvonen came 3rd, Ceri Pass came 2nd, and Zali Dale made it the father daughter double in 27:26. Out of the new groups who took on the medium, Sze’s group was 3rd, Soraya’s group was 2nd, and Kurtis, Taj and Ben took the win in 31:52.

Out of those who took on the long course, in the men’s KO took out the top 3 with Ruben Claessens in 3rd, Sten Claessens in 2nd and Rohan Braid blistering around the course to take the win in 34:35. For the women’s Tracy Burns came in 2nd and Canadian Nicki Rehn took the victory in 51:45. Smartly, no new coming groups decided to take on the long course.

Thanks to all the helpers who had the gargantuan task of handling the crowds of people while the setter ran off to print out more maps. The beginners briefing looked like an assembly but everyone chipped in and made the day a great success. So big thanks to Kate, Ekaterina, Liam, Amy, Rachel, Craig, Ceri, Melinda and anyone else who might have chipped in at the beginning. Further thanks to additional control collectors, Sten, Ruben, Rohan, and Nigel. More thanks to Mark who helped with various things. Also, thanks to Tim, Sara and Adam at Oberthur for welcoming the setter into the school to talk at the assembly, help out in sports class as well as promoting the event in their newsletter and letting us use to school. Everyone helped out in making this such a great event and we are truly so incredibly pleased at the numbers we got. Thank you everyone.

And last but not least, a massive thank you our event setter Joseph - what a fantastic start to the summer series!

Results can be found on Eventor, and you can see some people’s route choices on Livelox. (Livelox? What's that? Read more about it on our Livelox article!)

We look forward to seeing everyone at the next event on the 15th of November, MetrO 2 in Warwick.

Photo: The registration crowd - taken by Ken Brownlie.