A gripping tussle between defending champion Andy Hill and perennial bridesmaid Robbie "the perennial bridesmaid" Preston was played out over the two-leg contest. After the first leg the two were dead-level. As the first runners away in the chasing start, the rest of the field got to watch them diverge around a bush and disappear from sight. Simon Errington had a comfortable gap behind him, and held off Mike Burton on the second leg, but didn't make an impact on the leaders. Andy eventually got away from Robbie at the last control, finishing just after Carol Osborne took off leading the women's field. Carol increased her lead over the rest of the field, with last year's champion Jo Parr crashing to last.
Blue 1.2km 1 Matthew Osborne BF 18:20 2 Rachel Osborne BF 22:52 3 Annika Mounty BF 26:53 4 Kristina Murphy 37:05 5 Taylor 40:22 6 Hawkes 41:25 7 Idan Kotzen 47:25 Green 1.7km 1 Janet & Tim Mill 36:03 2 Justine Brindley GO 39:52 Orange 2.2km 1 Jim Wells GO 27:44 2 Terry Donohue 35:23 3 Dabreo/Hawkes 40:56 4 Betty Chen 44:54 5 Mark Brindley GO 45:59 6 David & Dean 48:55 7 Marryn Horrocks 49:52 8 Sue Thomson GO 56:00 9 Michael Banham 62:25 10 Bev Johnson GO 74:59 11 Mark & Jack Bennett 97:12 Cheryl Bluett BN dnf Sprint 1 2.1km Sprint 2 1.9km 1 Andrew Hill WHO 11:46 (1) 10:55 (1) 22:41 2 Rob Preston NC 11:46 (2) 11:04 (2) 22:50 3 Simon Errington GBR 13:01 (3) 13:47 (4) 26:48 4 Mike Burton BF 14:05 (4) 13:40 (3) 27:45 5 Glen Horrocks GO 15:30 (6) 13:53 (5) 29:23 6 Matt Hely WHO 14:36 (5) 14:56 (6) 29:32 7 Wayne Pepper BN 15:32 (7) 16:25 (9) 31:57 8 Albert T. Moose BF 17:51 (9) 15:16 (7) 33:07 9 Terry Bluett BN 17:41 (8) 15:37 (8) 33:18 10 Carol Osborne BF 22:04 (13) 17:32 (10) 39:36 11 Peter Thomson BF 20:59 (12) 20:53 (12) 41:52 12 Julie Gooding 22:42 (14) 19:23 (11) 42:05 13 Helen Errington GBR 23:30 (15) 21:28 (14) 44:58 14 Jo Parr BF 25:33 (16) 21:06 (13) 46:39 15 Ian Miller WHO 19:26 (10) 27:13 (15) 46:39 16 Brian Johnson GO 36:02 (19) 33:00 (16) 69:02 Andrew Lumsden BF 20:10 (11) dns dnf Dave Lotty UR 25:42 (17) dns dnf Shaun Anderson 26:31 (18) dns dnf