NWOC newsletter March 2021

Hello everyone – We are counting down the days now until Easter and the National Orienteering Championships, hosted by our club. There were a few nerve-wracking weeks when Auckland went into another Alert Level 3 lockdown, but we have all our fingers and toes crossed that we will now stay in Alert Level 1 and can enjoy an exciting 4 days of first-class orienteering.

Our course planners and controllers have been working hard to finalise courses and we look forward to show-casing two new maps, plus an old favourite at Lake Kereta, together with a cunningly tricky sprint at Long Bay.

Event director, Annemarie, has been flat out behind the scenes, pulling together all the administrative threads, and co-ordinating all the many tasks that go into making a successful Nationals.  We have almost 500 entries and are delighted with all the offers to volunteer from both club members and others from around New Zealand.

Don’t forget there is an AOS event at Temu Road in Woodhill this Sunday 21 March – a last chance to hone your pine forest orienteering technique before Easter. Check out the calendar of events below – there is just about non-stop orienteering throughout Autumn.

I look forward to seeing you at Nationals very soon!

Lisa Mead
President NWOC
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1. Events Calendar
2. AKSS Sprint series
3. Mountain Bike Orienteering
4. Knock Out Sprint
5. Riverhead Weekend
6. Coaching resources – beginners to advanced
7. Katoa Po night relay results
8. NZOC2021
9. New members
10. Godzone race 2021

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1. Events Calendar

March
Sun 21 AOC AOS 3 Temu Road, Woodhill Forest
Mon 22 AKSS (West) Henderson High School (rescheduled from week 1)
Wed 24 AKSS (Central) Diocesan School (rescheduled from week 1)
Wed 24 Summernav Western Springs
Thu 25 AKSS (North) Birkenhead College/ Birkdale Intermediate (rescheduled from week 1)
Sun 28 CMOC AOS 4 Totara Park. Foot orienteering event followed by MTB orienteering from 12.30pm. Enter online (via EnterO) or on the day
Sun 28 OBOP  Sprint event in Reporoa (Bay of Plenty) followed by a Middle distance event close by. Details : http://www.obop.org.nz/autumn-o-2021.html
Pre-entry is preferred.
Mon 29 AKSS (West) Avondale College (rescheduled from week 1)
Tue 30 Summernav Auckland Domain (Titoki Street)- rescheduled.
Wed 31 AKSS (Central) Auckland Grammar & St Peters (Rescheduled and to be confirmed)

April
Thu 01 AKSS (North) Rosmini College
Fri 02 NWOC NZ Champs Sprint – Long Bay
Sat 03 NWOC NZ Champs Long South Head/Karaka Swamp (new map)
Sun 04 NWOC NZ Champs Middle Lake Kereta West(new map)
Mon 05 NWOC NZ Champs Relay – Lake Kereta
NZ National Champs Late entries close midnight 19 March: https://entero.co.nz/evento.php?eventName=NZOC2021

Tue 06 AOC Carrington Campus  Knock Out Sprint for Elites and all keen, up and coming sprinters, followed by a single sprint race for the public.
Pre-entry via enterO here:
Sun 11 AKSS Final Morning - Akoranga Campus, Afternoon ‐ Massey University Oteha Rohe Campus
Sun 18 AOC AOS 5 Turkey Ridge South
19-21 NZ Mountain Bike Orienteering Champs, Alexandra (Central Otago)Sat 24 South Island Orienteering Champs (Long Distance)  Earnscleugh Station, Alexandra
Sun 25 South Island Orienteering Champs (Sprint)  Molyneux Park, Alexandra
Mon 26 South Island Orienteering Champs (Middle distance)  Letts Gully West, Alexandra
For information on the South Island Champs: https://sites.google.com/dunedinorienteering.org/2021-sic

29/30 Apr/ 01 May North Island Secondary School Champs  Palmerston North/ Bulls
For all the details visit: nissoc21.orienteering.org.nz

May
Sat 08 NWOC AOS 1 Riverhead Forest Middle distance
Sun 09 NWOC AOS 2 Riverhead Forest Long distance
These events comprise ROW- Riverhead Orienteering Weekend on a new forest map.

Sun 16 NWOC AOS Turkey Ridge North (New map!)
Check out the club website for details of other events in 2021: https://www.nwoc.org.nz/events/
AOS = Auckland Orienteering Series – events generally have 9 courses of varying lengths and difficulty.

2. AKSS Sprint series- back on track
After a rocky and Covid-interrupted start, the AKSS schools sprint series, run by Lactic Turkey with NWOC club volunteers, is back on track with 700 students participating over the three zones just this week alone.  With prizes of Lactic Turkey sunglasses on offer to those who could correctly answer his questions, Shaun ensured he had the full attention of the crowd during the pre-sprint briefing at Takapuna Grammar.
Some of the cancelled sprints have been re-scheduled and most zones will have a 4-race series with the double final to be held on 11 April.
See Coaching from the couch below for the link to Shaun and Madeleine’s brilliant YouTube video on getting started with sprint orienteering.

3. Come and give MTBO (mountain bike Orienteering) a go on 28 March – No experience needed! – Just bring your bike and Sense of Adventure .
Follow on Event from the Foot Orienteering – Totara Park on 28^th March, individual starts after briefing at 12:30pm, event centre 200m from Wairere Road car Park.

What do I need? Your mountain bike – or borrow your friend’s bike.
A map board of sorts if you have one or can borrow one – but alternatively can keep your map in your cycle top or clip around your neck.

3 Courses Available from beginner to more experienced
Short course – 6.4 km with 8 control check points, this is a beginner course on gravel road and beginner tracks for those that want to get a taste of riding in the park, we expect the winning time around 30mins.
Medium course – 11.4 km with 13 control check points, this course is also a beginner course and will suite most competitors that have some MTB experience giving those a challenge and taste of MTBO, a number of intermediate tracks in the park will be used with a reasonable amount of climbing, we expect the winning time around 45min.
Long course – 16.4 km with 20 control check points, this course will suite more experience riders with 360m of climbing utilizing the majority of tracks and requiring map riding skills. This course has a twist requiring the rider to follow a set course (the same as the medium) while collecting 7 additional control check points at their own leisure and in any order (to complete the course you must collect all additional 7 controls). We expect the winning time around 1hr 10min.

Bring your friends or make it a family outing - Come on give it a go – it may be your new favourite sport…..

Entries – online  here or on the day, $20/adult & $10 child (additional ident timing chip hire $3 per person).

The 2021 NZ Mountain Bike Orienteering Champs are being hosted by Dunedin Orienteering in Central Otago from 18th -20th April (1st week of school holidays) on what promise to be some amazing MTB orienteering maps.
For people who are yet to enter, we encourage you to get your travel booked and entries in soon!  You can enter here - NZ MTBO Champs Entries.  As an added sweetener the organisers are offering a prize draw of 2 mapboards, with everyone who has entered by 27th March being eligible for the prize draw. Entries close Saturday 10th April.

The setter and controller of the Middle distance event, Viv Prince and Dave Armstrong reckon they have one of the best MTBO middle distance maps in the country at Chatto Creek, with lots of fast off track options that is unique for MTBO and will favour those competitors who can hold a line on a compass and navigate off track.

Conal Boland Bristow and Matt Bixley have been spoilt for choice planning interesting challenges at Naseby for the Long distance, which has a super interesting complex network of tracks that offer fun riding, interesting route choice, and even a swimming dam at the event centre that promises a great day out on and off the bikes!

And we have been assured by Joe Sherriff and Alister Metherell that their Sprint courses on the complex maze of tracks close to Alexandra is guaranteed to be the opposite of boring, and will need focus and concentration to do well on.

Whilst the promise of great courses and competition is assured, competitors will also have plenty of time to socialise, relax and check out the local area. This includes the social event / prizegiving that will take place on Monday 19th April at the Alexandra Bowling Club. Catering will be by the Alexandra Lions Club who always put on a superb feed.
A reminder also that the South Island Foot Orienteering Champs will be on the weekend after the MTBO champs.

Marquita in MTBO action mode.

4. Knock Out Sprint (KOS) – not just for elite orienteers!

Entries close soon for the post-Nationals knockout sprint which AOC is hosting with the Orienteering NZ High Performance Director, Malcolm Ingham on Easter Tuesday. Malcolm advises that there is no reason why any 16, 18, 20 or 21 should not have a go at this. It's not just for elites and anyone with any sprint WOC ambition somewhere down the line needs this experience.
Entries are limited to 36 men and 36 women and close on 26 March. All competitors will get 3 races – quarter-final, semi-final and final.

There will also be a single public race for others. See the events listing above for entry details.


5. Riverhead Orienteering Weekend – re-scheduled

We aimed to kick off the forest orienteering season on 6/7 March with the Riverhead Orienteering Weekend (ROW). A brand-new map, produced by Cameron de L’Isle, a specially constructed long track for the easier courses, controls already placed in the terrain – and out of the blue, Auckland was plunged back into Covid Alert Level 3.

We were gutted to have to postpone these events but we will run the weekend on 8/9 May, so pencil the dates into your diary now.
 
6. Coaching from the couch
Check out the excellent new coaching and training resources on the Orienteering NZ website (also on the NWOC website on our Beginners page). This is a framework of information and coaching for developing orienteering skills from beginner level to experienced orienteers. There is information from learning basic symbols and how to use a compass, up to traffic lighting techniques and advanced relocation skills, all well illustrated with Gene Beveridge’s brilliant YouTube video tutorials.

Coaching Framework: https://www.orienteering.org.nz/coaching-framework/

An example from Coaching framework for Yellow level/ inexperienced orienteers

If you are new to the Schools Sprint Series – or sprint orienteering in general, then this brilliant Youtube video by Lactic Turkey is highly recommended viewing.  Don’t worry if it is your first time – here is all you need to know to get started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kauXZR9QK80&feature=emb_title

7. Katoa Po Relays- Taupo
Katoa Po is a Maori translation for “all night” and the event is the annual interclub night relay hosted by the Taupo Orienteering Club.  This year NWOC had one team of 7 people competing for the Owl trophy and another 5-person team contesting the Po Kerukeru trophy.

From all accounts there was some gnarly night-time navigation required in order to avoid rather large and impenetrable blackberry thickets. Congratulations to all who participated, from 9 year old Quinn Harris to ever-youthful veteran Dave Middleton; Nick Monckton who finished despite a badly twisted ankle and several of our elite runners. Both teams placed 3^rd in their categories. Thanks to Cameron de L’Isle who organised our teams.
The results can be found here: https://taupoorienteering.nz/results/20210314_katoapo_results_by_teams_toc.html

8.NZOC2021 New Zealand Orienteering Champs – hosted by NWOC.

The Nationals (NZOC2021) at Easter are getting very close, and the dedicated NZOC2021 team is working out the remaining details at full speed.

The event website is the main source of information for NZOC2021, with previous maps of the embargoed areas, Bulletin 2 and the Start lists available in a week from now.

The National Champs March newsletter has some interesting cameos on our course planners and some new photos taken out in the terrain – it is a great read here.

Good Friday, 2 April, will start with a Sprint in Long Bay, on Auckland’s North Shore. With specialist urban-sprint setter Renee Beveridge and her mischievous mind, this promises to be a challenge for all abilities.
The remaining three events all take place on South Head, using two brand-new maps for the Long and Middle, and old favourite for the Relay at Lake Kereta.
        
 NZOC 2021 relay terrain        Photo – Paul Ireland

Volunteers 

A big THANK YOU to club-members who have already volunteered their time and expertise for a variety of roles – in an ideal world, we would like all NWOC competitors also involved in volunteering, with many hands making light work! And if you decided not to participate this year, but have some spare time over the weekend, get in touch. All offers of helping hands are very welcome; please contact us via NZOC2021@gmail.com.

Setters & Controllers

An event the size of the New Zealand Nationals requires a lot of planning, and a lot of (volunteer) work from many members. Very early on in the process, teams of a setter and controller start planning 'their' event. At North West, we are very lucky to have many members who have been around for a long time and still get excited with every new o-adventure.

Our 'oldest' orienteer, based on the length of his sporting career, is Andrew Bell, setter for the Relay as part of NZOC2021. Andrew started orienteering back in 1978, and still vividly remembers his first race on the Otakanini Topu map in Woodhill Forest. ‘The trees were very young and the visibility was low. Happily, the white course did not enter the dark forest. The smell of the pine trees from that race is still a strong memory and the fact I managed to get to the finish line set up a passion for many years to come.’ Andrew credits Ralph King giving him some special advice when he first started setting courses. Andrew recalls Ralph being a strong advocate of not hiding controls and that they were ‘merely turning points connecting the legs together’. Andrew has developed a reputation as a specialist in setting orienteering relay events. Given the requirement for relays to plan several courses, similar in length and complexity and with split controls, we think Ralph would be proud of Andrew’s mastery of using controls as turning points to connect legs! Forty plus years since his first event, Andrew says he still loves the sport. While his fitness and speed have meant he has not been an Elite orienteer, he comments, ‘the challenges are no different. You always hope for a perfectly clean race every time you stand on the start line. It very rarely happens even after 43 years of practice but when it does nothing beats it.’

Rob Garden (setter Middle), Marquita Gelderman (Controller Middle, overall Event Controller) and Andrew de L’Isle (Coordinator Sprint)  all share similar stories: they were ‘hooked’ after the first event they participated it.

The background stories of siblings Gene Beveridge (Controller Long) and Renee Beveridge (Setter Sprint) follow a distinctly different pattern, being introduced to the sport from a very young age by their parents Mike and Debbie. Renee’s first memories of orienteering are the stories her parents tell her of them taking her around courses in a backpack, ‘back in the 90’s’ when she was aged 1 or 2! She does not recall her first ever-real event, commenting ‘I was pretty young’. Two early memories are from Queens Birthday weekend events in 2001 or 2003. ‘It was somewhere in Woodhill and I remember collecting peacock feathers along the way’. Another recollection from around the same time is of doing the yellow course at an Oceania event and ‘running down these open grassy hills next to Weiti forest toward the finish’. Gene's experiences are similar, with memories of pinecone wars with friends and hunting for huhu grubs in rotten logs. He remembers the first time he understood contours when he ‘cut a big corner on a yellow course, which was very empowering.’

Gene credits Ross Morrison as having passed on some invaluable words of wisdom. "Read the map, and when you're not reading the map, read the map." Gene says this is advice he will always remember in his quest to become a better navigator. Renee comments she’s been given lots of wonderful, overlapping, advice over the years including Morrison's previously mentioned constant map-reading advice and the phrase ‘Always have a plan’.

Why is orienteering a passion for Gene? He says, ‘I'm at my happiest when I'm exploring the outdoors, and I've always liked the feeling of endurance exercise, so orienteering seems to be a natural fit. I'd say I really fell in love with orienteering once I was skilled enough to experience orienteering as a mental and emotional strategy game and I find this endlessly fascinating.’ What is it that keeps Renee involved in orienteering? 'It’s the variation of places and terrain you compete in. Moreover, it is one of the rare sports where you can go to countless international events throughout the world, and finish alongside a 7-year-old all the way through to elites, and elderly runners. It is a sport where all grades can compete at the same event on the same day and all socialise afterwards'. Renee has met people from all around the world and she loves that orienteers tend to be ‘like-minded, chill, and adventurous’!

9. New members

Welcome to new club members Alex Watson and Oscar Ruffell both from Whangarei; Hannah Barnett; and welcome back again to Jonine Fuss who was a keen student member of the club more than a decade ago. We look forward to catching up with you in the forest soon!

10. Godzone 2021

Huge congratulations to Stuart Lynch, a member of Team Avaya who had a resounding win in this month’s challenging Godzone team expedition adventure race, held the North Island for the first time. 
Along with epic mountain biking, paddling and trekking across the Kaimanawa and Kaweka Ranges, one of the key components of the race was a rogaine in the Whirinaki Forest, where Chris and Stuart’s navigation skills came into play. A number of teams had to complete this challenge at night, having already been pushing themselves to the limits for days.

There is a great race report from Avaya team captain Nathan Fa’avae on the Sportzhub website here.

Former NWOC members Tom Reynolds and Matt Jeans in Ataraxia-Macpac raced to an excellent 4^th place and many other teams featured familiar names in orienteering.