Our club treasurer Istvan Kertesz swept all three Open 3 class races at the ACT MTBO-champs at the weekend.
Not yet old enough for M40 and not wanting to compete against the elites in M21, Istvan took out the Sprint, Middle and Long in warm conditions at Kowen Forest.
Partner Nikolett Halmai also rode in Open 3 on the Saturday, finishing second in the Sprint and third in the Middle. On Sunday she won Open 4 in the Long.
"It was our first solely MTBO event," said Istvan. "It was Niki's idea to go as she cannot run at the moment due to injury."
"I was always fond of the DuO format having attended them from the beginning and always competing in the longest courses. Sometimes this meant that by the end I ran/cycled more than 40km like at Belanglo. Because of this and that we had fun at the DuOs this year we thought to give MTBO a try."
Clare Jessup won the W20 Sprint in her only race of the carnival, while father Ian won Open 5 in the Long after two tough races in M50 on Saturday.
A big thanks to OACT for a lovely weekend. The last MTBO action for 2020 is Newcastle's BOSS event at Neath on Sun Dec 13.
The Horley family had a day to remember at the Sydney MetrO League finals on Sunday, with son Cooper and father Adam taking out the individual medals in Divisions 2 and 4 respectively.
Adam led the Monitors to an unbeaten season in Division 4 as well, while NSW Stinger Toby Wilson claimed the hotly contested individual medal in Division 1 despite the Goannas losing the final to Big Foot.
Cooper is still only in Year 8, already a member of the NSW schools team, and continued his rapid improvement to end the 5 rounds with 45 points from a maximum of 50.
Adam and team-mate John Bulman were level on 38 points heading into the last round at Lansdowne, and Adam prevailed by just 15 seconds to claim the silverware.
The other members of the winning Monitors team were Jim Merchant, Tania Kennedy and Ian Jessup.
In the new Division 6, the previously unbeaten GO Blue Tongues went down to SHOO-IKO 32-23. Sub-junior Arthur Lusher finished runner-up in the individual medal, having run a 6-hour rogaine the day before. A great effort by a youngster in his first crack at Metro.
A big thank you to club captain Jamie Kennedy for managing the 8 teams again in 2020.
Garingal's DUO event at Frenchs Forest on Monday attracted 114 participants on a hot day to finish the long weekend.
Ian Jessup set courses on Bennelong's new Ferretville map for the Foot course, and on the wider Manly Dam/Ferretville map for the MTBO - which featured the 1.5km twisting Possum Trail single track.
Gun junior Cooper Horley, still only in Year 8, was 5th fastest overall against some very good competition. Cooper cleared both courses easily under the 60-minute limit for each, finishing in 82m25s.
Aniko Fozo-Kertesz (pictured) was second among the women and 10th overall, in 96m20s.
New club member Armands Teteris was fastest among those doing just the Foot course (36.54) while junior rookie Anneke Corry, fresh off some sessions conducted by ONSW for her Mackellar year 9 class, was third fastest female in 49.28.
A big thanks to controller Michael Ridley-Smith, organiser Stuart Deane, the SI team, and all the helpers.
