THOMASS Sprint and Chase - Bronte Creek, Dec. 10

The one and only THOMASS Winter Orienteering Series kicked off twelve years ago this month with GHO's first Thomass Chase. The tradition continued with this year's Thomass Sprint and Chase, which attracted an impressive 80 racers, including many new faces. Although there was no snow, it was definitely winter orienteering, with a significant wind chill factor, brilliant sunshine, and a layer of thin ice covering both shallow puddles and chilly, thigh-deep swamps. (Just ask Kristen!)

The new Bronte Creek Provincial Park orienteering map is unusual for southern Ontario, with very few contour lines and only a small amount of forested land. There are some trails and roads, but success depends on correctly interpreting the complex vegetation mapping. The Thomass Sprint was held in a day use area at the south end of the park, while the Thomass Chase explored the campground area at the north end.

Course designers Mike and Jim Waddington tried out a new concept for the Thomass Box in each of the races, with the idea of introducing more route choice. As usual for Thomass events, participants could drop some of the 8 controls in each Box depending on age and gender handicap. They needed to visit the remaining Box controls by running one or more self-selected butterfly loops, normally consisting of two Box controls followed by a return to the numbered control at the Box entrance. Participants with uneven handicap numbers ran one loop where they visited only one Box control. After completing as many loops as required, runners continued to the rest of the numbered controls. Finish times from the 3 km Sprint were used to assign start times for the longer Thomass Chase, with faster sprinters earning a head start in the Chase.

Once again, GHO took all the category wins, and placed several club members near the top of the standings!

Men (four GHO members in top six)
(1) Mark Adams - GHO, (2) Eugene Mlynczyk - UKR, (3) Nick Duca - Stars, (4) Hans Fransson - GHO, (5) Bob Miller - GHO, (6) Andrei Logvin - GHO

Women (five GHO members in top six)
(1) Marianna Weber - GHO, (2) Barb Campbell - GHO, (3) Elena Logvina - GHO, (4) Val Duca - Stars, (5) Trudy Deumer - GHO, (6) Cathy Muffolini - GHO

Juniors
(1) - Serghei Logvin - GHO, (2) Justine Scheck - YOA

An honourable mention goes to 8-year-old Emma Waddington, who became the youngest-ever Thomass finisher!

Results, map and event feedback form can be found here.

The next Thomass event is at Walker Tract in Uxbridge on Jan. 7. See you there!