Orienteering: Intense and Scenic!!

While the 20th century was dominated by spectator sport practised in a confined space, as we move into the 21st sports that break the boundaries, and involves mass participation in the outdoors are growing from strength to strength.

People are vacating the courts, the halls and the fields to head for the roads, the mountains and the forests, to practice their sports in new and challenging environments. One sport that captures this post modern sporting market perfectly is orienteering, the map sport that explores urban fringes, farms, forests and wildlands throughout the country. The recently held South Island Champs epitomised the adventure that is to be found in this misunderstood sport.

The events were held firstly on Canaan Downs, the amazing plateau above Abel Tasman National Park famously home to the original "Gathering" dance party and secondly in the glacial moraine of Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park. Orienteering seeks out unique natural areas to challenge the physical endurance, navigational ability and mental strength of its competitors. These areas with their unique landforms set amongst vast and astonishing natural vistas are among many amazing places that orienteers regularly visit to indulge their sporting passion.

Our correspondent Simon Bloomberg reports from this very scenic event and emphasises the very intense competition taking place.

"The classic distance returned to Canaan Downs, the location of last years nationals where Czech star Jaromir Svihovsky ran away from the kiwi field, this year the international flavour was guaranteed by acclimatised kiwi Carsten Jorgensen, who was expected to be challenged by a strong field including the in form Aaron Prince. and of course the 15.1 km course

The fast open fields of Canaan Downs are pocketed with Native bush and Rocky outcrops while huge tomos ensure caution. Tricky navigation through the forests needs constant vigilance with a chance to open it up through the paddocks. With this in mind and some experience of the map from last year, the elite field took to the course. Christchurch elites made up the podium with Michael Smithson taking it out by 20 seconds from Joergenson. A further minute behind Matt Scott came in only dropping out of winning contention on the second to last control where he made a crucial navigational mistake. Prince completed the top four two minutes behind Smithson. Prince found the native forest technical but otherwise had a clean run.

The women competed over an equally difficult 9km course. The course started  trickily, straight into some native forest, two long legs then tested the fitness before a quick final technical loop to the finish. Lara Prince had a blinder and came in 12 minutes ahead on the field. Rising to the challenge talented junior Georgia Whitla had a good run but errors in the forest let her down. Nelson’s own Sarah Gray stormed in twenty odd seconds behind also having some difficulty in the forest, but generally pretty consistent. Completing the top 4 marked Sara Wallèn’s return to the competitive scene after having a wee baby 8 weeks ago!

The event then transferred to Rotoiti the staging point to Nelson Lakes National Park. The map at Rotoiti is in West Bay and features the banks of the Buller River and south highway 63. A mixture of rocky moss filled clearings and dense manuka/kanuka and beech forested areas, not a lot of contour features and tracks meant navigation needed to be very tight. A middle distance course was set and almost fifty people stepped up to the long course of 4.4km. Warnings of go slow and use the clearings were abound, fantastic advice but probably falling on deaf ears!

Michael Smithson quietly confident after beating legend Chris Forne here a wee while ago shot off into the forest and claimed the first two controls very speedily, unfortunately things went awry around the middle and he lost his chance at the win, though he did tie for second place with Aaron Prince. Aaron was having a blinder and held the lead after Smithson bowed out during the middle section; alas it was not to be as he blundered on the penultimate control and settled for second equal with Smithson. Carsten Jorgenson came through the field to take out the course by over a minute from Smithson and Prince, after they both had their shot at the lead but blew it. A slow start followed by and excellent middle section and a consistent finish put him at the top of the field.

Sara Wallèn’s return to elite level is definitely on the road again after cleaning up the women’s field in the middle distance. Coming in around the hour mark her technique of jogging and keeping careful watch of the terrain and map was the successful technique. Next up was Carmen Minder a Swiss orienteer staying with a Nelson family for four months, she came in a minute down giving up an early lead with some mistakes through the middle and end. Following Carmen, was Southerly Storm captain Jenni Adams ahead of Saturdays champion Lara Prince and Georgia Whitla. "