Greetings everyone

Suddenly it is less than two weeks until Christmas, school is over for the year and many of us are counting down the days until summer holidays, time at the beach… or training for the orienteering events coming up in January and February.
We had another very enjoyable NWOC end of the year AGM, prizegiving and dinner at Coatesville Settlers Hall on 1^st December. Special thanks to Kaye Griffiths who made all the arrangements, Judy and Kingsley Ng-Wai Shing, who provided the delicious ham and arranged the trophy engraving, Jula and Lion Breweries for soft drinks and Annemarie for the great slideshow of orienteers in action during 2019. Tim and Maddie Longson provided the action on the night with a truly challenging navigation maze!
Following our AGM, we have a couple of gaps in our committee and would welcome hearing from anyone who is keen to contribute to the club in any way.

Safe travels over the summer and Hari Kirihimete  

In this issue:

1. Upcoming Events
2. NWOC events, course planners and helpers for2020
3. Katoa Po night relays
4. Training from the Couch
5. Two Sprint Weekends to Kick Start the New Year!
6. Who has been doing what?
7. NWOC Prize-winners for 2019
8. President’s report

1. Upcoming Events

Auckland Summernav park events – starts again on 21 January at the University’s Epsom Campus. http://www.orienteeringauckland.org.nz/events/summernav/calendar/

Secondary Schools Sprint Series – extremely popular after school sprint races, starting in February.

A full calendar of the 2020 events is in the process of being finalized and will be published early in the new year. This will include a full series of 4 of the very popular NWOC rogaine events. See our website for list of events up to April.

2. NWOC Events 2020

We have volunteers to plan and control most of our club events for next year – these are the roles which require the most expertise – although we will buddy up less experienced planners with mentors.
We still need  more co-ordinators to arrange people-power and helpers for the day of the event and make sure all runs smoothly on the day. It takes a bit of organization but is not a difficult role, and is a great way to meet new people. We have a handbook for coordinators, so if you can help fill one of the gaps on the attached events list please get in touch with our secretary Annemarie, northwestorienteering@gmail.com or club captain Rob Garden rgmg@xtra.co.nz.

Jobs list for NWOC events 2020:https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SHKwfhdg91Eb35C9eW-s09U6J8-9dsoF  

3. Katoa Po Relays 14 March 2020

Katoa Po is a Maori translation for “all night” and the event is the annual interclub night relay hosted by the Taupo Orienteering Club. The first relay was held at the end of January 1981 but nowadays is usually in March when dusk is earlier but the weather still generally good. 2020 marks the 40^th anniversary of the Katoa Po and we are keen to defend our Owl trophy!

Don’t worry if you are not experienced or are nervous about running in the dark – the first courses for the junior runners start on dusk and Trevor Carswell always brings lots of high-powered headlamps which light up the night (we can loan you a torch). Better still, no-one fails, as all competitors score points for their team (there are time penalties for missed checkpoints but no disqualifications).
 Katoa Po 2020 will be on a new map close to Acacia Bay, just out of Taupo – all runners are welcome and NWOC will pay members’ entry fees.  Stay and camp at the event and compete in a fun rogaine event on the Sunday morning.

4. Training from the couch

Post Christmas feasting and too bloated for a run? – try these World of O route on line choice exercises. Work out how you would run the leg and then compare with the experts. The first one is from the Oceania Long championship held recently in Australia. Club members Gene Beveridge (2^nd placed in the race) and Matt Odgen ran this leg.

http://news.worldofo.com/2019/12/01/route-to-christmas-day-1-2019/   

http://news.worldofo.com/2019/12/06/route-to-christmas-day-6-2019/

http://news.worldofo.com/2019/12/09/route-to-christmas-day-9-2019/

And more - see the World of O web site.

The whole world has been mapped for orienteering – The worlds largest orienteering map. Select the sprint map option, zoom into your neighbourhood, export current map view (produces a PDF), use Purple Pen (free O course setting software) and you have an O map, with course over printing that is good enough for a training run, casual / social event.

5. Two Sprint Weekends to Kick Start the New Year!

Lonely Mountain Sprints, Taranaki, 24-27 January

Entries and information on www.lonelymountainsprints.weebly.com
This event is also a trial for WOC (World Orienteering Champs -which will be a sprint format in 2020). Entries close on 7 January so get yourself organized soonish!

Sprint the Bay, Hawkes Bay, 31 January - 2 February

Entries and information on http://sprintthebay.com/entry/

6. Kepler Challenge

Gene Beveridge has focused on longer distance mountain trail races over the past few years and would have started the annual Kepler Challenge race (Fiordland) as one of the favourites.  This year’s race coincided with horrendous weather on the West Coast and South of New Zealand, so the race directors wisely offered a modified course including the Luxmore Grunt climb and out and back up the Waiau valley to Moturau Hut.

The alternate route effectively asked a capacity field of 450 runners to complete half the Kepler Track twice, and despite the length of the event being about 6km shorter, it still proved a challenge.
Biting cold wind and rain greeted runners as they emerged from the bushline on the way to and from Luxmore Hut (at 1085m), the highest point of the alternate route, and runners had to negotiate water up to waist deep on significant sections of the track along the Waiau river. Congratulations to Gene on his 3^rd place result.  Club member Johan Kvasnicka also braved the elements to complete the long race in 62^nd place overall.

54km Kepler Challenge alternate route:
Men: Daniel Jones (4hr 26min 34sec) 1; Alex Hunt (4:45.51) 2; Gene Beveridge (4:48.49) 3.

7. NWOC Prize winners 2019

Special Awards 2019

Most Improved Junior Male - Luke Farrand

Most Improved Junior Female - Cara Bradding

Top Junior Male - Daniel Monckton

Top Junior Female - Tegan Knightbridge

North West Shield for Most Improved Senior - Phillippa Poole

King Trophy for Most Improved Newcomer - Beth Spence

Stone Trophy for the Most Outstanding Performance of the Year - Gene Beveridge 

North West Shield for the Most Valuable Service to the Club  - Jenny Cade, Annemarie Hogenbirk

Bert Chapman Junior Service Award (awarded first in 2016) - Alex Monckton

See here for the full list of all age-grade winners 
 

8. President's Report

Our wonderful president, Jenny stepped down from her role at the AGM. Read her full report of the events we ran during the year and our plans for 2020 and looking ahead to the future.