| Australian Rogaining Champion Philip Whitten with his winning trophies Australian Rogaining Champion Philip Whitten with his winning trophies |
How Philip navigated his way to Australian champ
6 Aug 2007 | Bernie Goldie
After successfully navigating his way into marriage, Philip Whitten was recently declared joint outright winner of the 28th Australian Rogaine Championships. Philip took part in the championships immediately at the end of his honeymoon.
Rogaining is the sport of long distance navigation where teams of 2 to 5 people use a map and compass to navigate through as many high-scoring controls as possible within a set time period. The standard time period for a championship event is 24 hours.
Philip, a postdoctoral student with UOW’s Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and Joel Mackay (from Sydney) were the outright winners of the championships, beating Rogaine legends David Baldwin and Julie Quinn from the ACT by just 20 points.
Philip has been with UOW intermittently for the past 12 years having obtained both his Bachelor of Engineering and PhD within materials engineering.
The recent championships were held in the East McDonald Ranges, about 80km east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The course consisted of several rugged rocky ranges and included extensive spinifex and loose rock. The Australian Rogaine Championships is an annual event rotated around each of Australia’s states.
Two hundred and eighty six people entered in the championships, with a total of 130 teams including entrants from all of the Australian states and 16 from New Zealand.
“I have been rogaining for about seven years. Joel and I normally rogaine with different partners but teamed up specifically for the Australian championships,” Philip said.
“Joel and I must have travelled about 100 kms on foot within the 24 hours.”
Philip pointed out that there is a strong rogaining community within UOW and he wished to acknowledge the support he had received from Trevor Gollan, Scott Hamilton, David Griffith and Ted Booth.
|
