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| 2001 Results |
| 8th March - The Australian Sports Commission Galaxy Sprint Race, The Domain, Hobart, TAS 4th Despite feeling ill, Ben put in a strong performance to finish 4th, behind Carsten Jorgensen (DEN), Tom Quayle (ACT) and David Brickhill-Jones (TAS) in the season opener, a park race in the middle of Hobart held in conjunction with the National Training Camp.. |
| 10th March - The Eureka Challenge, Qantas National Orienteering League - Leg 1, Linton, VIC Qualified 5th A-Final DNF In the qualifier, Ben put in a solide performance to finish 5th in a closely knit field. The top 26 qualified. The final was held on a 1:5000 map of complex gold-mining with 30sec intervals. Catching the eventual 3rd and 4th place getters early, Ben made a terrible error, mis-reading the map and missing out control 9 all together. This meant no result for Ben who looked headed for a victory, and would have gained it had he stuck with the pack he helped form. Full results |
| 11th March - Victorian Short Champiosnhips, Qantas National Orienteering League - Leg 2, Daylesford, VIC 3rd After the disappointment of the previous day, Ben had a point to prove. Over the relatively simple and physically demanding course he put in a strong perofrmance for 3rd. Rob Walter 1st, 29sec ahead, and Dave Shepherd 2nd, 9sec ahead along with Ben formed a pack at the leader boarc that no one managed to get within a minute 15seconds of. |
| 17th March - ACT Mountain Running Championships, 12km, 600m climb 2nd Despite still suffering from last weekends flurry of orienteering races, Ben returned to mountain running where he had tremendouc success last year and represented Australia at the World's. Paul Crake was too strong and took out the win, ahead of Ben by just under 2minutes. Left: Placegetters, Ben, Paul & Adrian. Full results |
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| Finishing the Sprint, only to be disqualified, ACTAS Skills coach Jase McCrae cheering Ben home. |
| 14th April - Australian 3-Days, Qantas National Orienteering League - Leg 3 - Daylesford, VIC mispunch Today was disappointing. What was supposed to be a solid first day, rapidly turned into the end of Ben's Easter campaign when he discovered his mispunched towards the end of the course. The mispunch means that he would not count for an overall result. A disappointed Ben said:: "...nothing special at all, a bit all over the place really, but there were no big mistakes [other than the obvious] so it would have been a solid start.". His time would have placed 6th. A protest was on the grounds that the controls were too close and that the situation was unfairly misleading. It was but not upheld Full results |
| 16th April - Australian 3-Days, Qantas National Orienteering League - Leg 5 - Daylesford, VIC 9th Not being in the chasing start (due to the mispunch on Day 1) was always going to be tough for someone who revels in the head to head battle of pack racing. His split times didn't indicate this though and it wasn't until the late stages of the race that he dropped from being 3rd fastest time of the day and back to 9th. Asked after the race: "I ran really well early on and then lost it all, it's hard to keep going hard near the end when you're tired and there's not much on the line. I'm glad it's over now, I'm more motivated than ever to run well in Queensland [for the trials in late May] and show everyone how much better I really am running" Full results |
| 15th April - Australian 3-Days, Qantas National Orienteering League - Leg 4, incorporating the Australian University Championships and World Ranking Event - Daylesford, VIC 4th & 1st! Back from disappointment, Ben overcame a blood nose, blisters and cramps to claim the title of Austrlain University Champion. The tough course saw no-one break 90minutes (or get even close) and Ben's strong performance gave him a 4th. This result would have started him in 3rd position (with the retirement of Eddie Wymer due to injury) in the following days chasing start. Full results |
| 26th April - Australian Short Course Championships, Qantas National Orienteering League - Leg 6 - Stanthorpe, QLD inj A cruel blow left Ben hobbling on a sprained left ankle on the way to the first control. A galant effort to keep running could not take him past the 7th control and a very disappointed Ben saw the start of a heartbreaking weekend. Full results |
| 27th April - Southern Downs Championships, World Championship Trials, Qantas National Orienteering League - Leg 7 - Stanthorpe, QLD inj A courageous effort even to start, but the previous days injury was too severe and the race ended prematurely. Full results |