New Zealand awarded 9th World Rogaining Championships

The New Zealand Rogaining Association has been awarded the 9th World Rogaining Championships in an announcement from the International Rogaining Federation today. The Championships are planned for 20-21 November 2010, and will be held in hill country near the town of Cheviot, 120 km north of Christchurch. The Championships will be a 24 hour team event, and will attract several hundred elite cross-country navigators from over twenty countries and all continents.

IRF President, Neil Phillips, said that this will be the second time New Zealand has hosted the World Rogaining Championships, the first time being the 4th World Rogaining Championships Millenium Rogaine of January 2000, which attracted 400 participants with an age span of 70 years from youngest to oldest.

In 2000, New Zealand elite rogainer, Chris Forne, first showed signs of his real ability with a second placing overall, which he followed up in 2006 by becoming World Rogaining Champion with fellow New Zealander Dennis De Monchy. They backed this up with a 2nd place in the recent World Rogaining Championships in Estonia behind a Russian team.

New Zealand has a long and proud history in rogaining and cross country navigation with claim to the longest running event, the TWALK, or 24 hour walk, originating from University of Canterbury in 1967. Greg Barbour is arguably the country’s most famous elite rogainer having won the World Rogaining Championships in 2000 in NZ, and again in 2002 in the Czech Republic, and with a second placing in 1998 in Canada, and 2004 in USA.

New Zealand is also renowned for its senior rogainers who routinely beat younger rivals, and seem to get stronger the steeper the country becomes. Pete Squires, Bill Kennedy and Anne Kennedy have won World and National titles in the super veterans category (over 55 yrs) for nearly a decade, and are also winning veteran categories (over 40 yrs) in the same events.

It is characteristic of rogaining that champion competitors give back so much as volunteers. Pete Squires, for example, formed the New Zealand Rogaining Association (NZRA) in 2002. He continues to lead the Association. He also co-ordinated the 4th World Rogaining Championships before taking on and leading this successful 2010 bid for the World Rogaining In his spare time, he developed the Navlight system that electronically records competitors’ progress at checkpoints throughout the whole 24 hours of events.

IRF Promotion and Development Manager, Alan Mansfield, who managed the selection process for 9th WRC, said that the sport was fortunate having four strong bids for 2010. Ukraine made a proposal based on their successful staging of the 3rd European Rogaining Championships in 2006. Czech Republic’s proposal built upon their successful 5th World Rogaining Championships held in countryside right up against the former iron curtain in 2002, and Russia made a bid capitalising on the fact they run more 24 hour rogaines that any other country and have many top ranked teams including the current World Rogaining Champions. The eventual choice of New Zealand reflected the global nature of rogaining and the wish of most countries and participants to rotate the prestigous World Championships between various continents. It is expected that many participants in 2010 will build holidays around the World Championships that would include competing in other cross country events in New Zealand and Australia, enjoying the spectacular countryside and friendly people.

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Background on the sport of Rogaining

Rogaining started near Melbourne during the 1970s and by word-of-mouth extended across Australia, then to NZ, USA, Canada, Germany; 20 countries are now affiliated with the International Rogaining Federation based in Melbourne, and thirty countries send participants to the World Rogaining Championships. There are an estimated 15,000 rogainers worldwide. Rogaining is a gender-blind team sport of cross-country navigation suitable for most age and fitness levels designed to provide mental and physical exercise in a natural location. Rogaining has similarities with bushwalking, cross-country running and orienteering, but has its own unique character and rules.

Rogaining grew out of a realisation that most sports don’t cater for varying and changing circumstances of family, physical capacity, and psychological desire to compete. What if a sport could be developed that tested mental ability as well as physical, and do this is a warm social setting where families with young children could also enjoy it?

A Rogaining event, or a rogaine, involves 200 or more people in a beautiful rural setting, volunteers establishing a base camp to supply food, drink and support; and a number of identified locations that have to be found by navigation. Some are easy, some are hard (do we climb over the mountain, or go round it?), and in championship form, some are very hard. Participants are in teams and each team does as much or little as it is comfortable with. For those fiercely competitive, there are challenges aplenty; for a young family there is enough to stretch the kids physically and mentally (with the navigation) for everyone to have a good time.
How often can relaxed families play the same sport with high performance athletes, and both enjoy it?
Usually Rogaines are held on private rural properties and state forest and may utilise 100 square km or more. The first stage of organising is for experienced rogainers to design the course. A series of checkpoints is established of varying difficulty, the higher the difficulty, the higher the score. The second stage is the establishment of the camp and the provision of food, drink, first aid and communications equipment. The third stage is the holding of the event, which usually runs for 24 hours. The final stage is the cleanup. Rogainers pride themselves on leaving the site at least as good as they found it.

 

Interesting facts about rogaining

Youngest ever rogaining competitor: a number of children of six months old have been carried by their parents. A few aged six and upwards compete at a restricted level with their parents.

Oldest ever competitor: the late Geoff Reynolds started rogaining in his late 60s in Western Australia and was a regular rogainer until he was 89. Several rogainers are 60 and over and a few of these remain highly competitive against all ages.

Oldest rogainer in the 8th World Rogaining Championships in Estonia 2008, 81 years.

Number of rogaining participants in 1972: 40; in 2005-2008: 15000.

Largest single rogaine: held in Estonia 2007, 1157 entrants.

Continents where rogaines have been held: Australasia, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America.

Countries that have hosted the World Rogaining Championships: Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Czech Republic, and Estonia in September 2008.

First 24 hour walk: Melbourne University 1947.

Longest running 24 hour walk: 42nd Twalk, University of Canterbury, NZ.

Extremes of climate: Alaska rogaine near Mt McKinley, Australian Rogaining Championships in desert near MacDonnell Range east of Alice Springs, and winter rogaines in Sweden. 2009 European Rogaining Championships will be above the Arctic circle in Finland.

Variants of the classic 24 hour rogaine include paddlogaines, cyclogaines, metrogaines, and upside-down rogaines.

Origin of sport: Surrey Thomas Rovers, University of Melbourne, Monash University - Melbourne, Australia 1976.

Number of salaried staff since 1976: 0

Number of volunteers: 5000

rogaine is now a word in a dozen languages, and comes from the three siblings who pioneered the sport – Rod, Gail, and Neil (Phillips).