New Zealand orienteering team face impossible task

With the Sprint and Long distance races out of the way, the hopes of the New Zealand Junior Orienteering team for a top placing now depend on the remaining individual race at the Junior World Championships – the Middle.

While picked as the ‘best-ever’ NZ Junior team to challenge at the World Junior Champs, the talented Kiwis are attempting to pull off a win against the dominant Scandinavians in their home terrain – an almost impossible task.

Angela Simpson has come closest to Scandinavians with her Sprint 17th placing and Long 32nd placing, both of these as the best non-European, and a major improvement on her results at the Junior Worlds in Italy in 2009.

After the Sprint, set in the urban grid of Aalborg University, the NZ team ran the Long distance course in the sand-dunes and forest of Jutland, Denmark.

“It was tough going through thick forest, then the open dunes with knee high heather” said Matt Ogden who placed 84th. “Everyone did very well to get around a mission of a course”.

Consensus among competitors after a tough day in the dunes was that success in the very specialised Danish terrain requires high track speed, determination to battle through tough vegetation and up brutal hill climbs, along with mastery of the fine sand-dune contour detail.

Dane Ida Bobach, winner of the Womens’ Sprint and Long, explained “The constant changing of orienteering technique made it quite difficult. Some tricky controls with focused orienteering were followed by long trail-running parts.”

With all but two of the top six places in the Mens and Womens classes Long distance filled by Scandinavians it is looking to be next to impossible to pick up a top placing.

But the format of the Middle distance - a qualifying heat and a final, in relatively flat forest - will suit the New Zealanders, giving those who make the finals more practise at mastering the Danish terrain.

Racing commences at 10am on Thursday 8 July (8pm NZ time) with the top 20 runners from each of the three heats going to the A-final, to be raced the following day.

Results:
2010 Junior World Orienteering Championships, Aalborg, Denmark.
Long distance, Women 7.25km. July 6.
1 Ida Bobach Denmark, 1:01:55;
2 Therese Klintberg, Sweden, 1:03:46;
3 Sari Anttonen, Finland 1:04:24;
32 Angela Simpson, New Zealand 1:13:10;
77 Laura Robertson, New Zealand 1:28:19;
92 Kate Morrison, New Zealand 1:38:52;
96 Jula Mcmillan, New Zealand 1:40:20;
107 Jaime Goodwin, New Zealand 1:49:31.

Long distance, Men 11.275 km. July 5.
1 Pavel Kubat, Czech Republic 1:18:48;
2 Johan Runesson, Sweden 1:19:32;
3 Matthias Kyburz, Switzerland 0 1:20:48;
76 Gene Beveridge, New Zealand 1:42:42;
78 Toby Scott, New Zealand 1:43:39;
84 Matt Ogden, New Zealand 1:45:16;
86 Jourdan Harvey, New Zealand 1:45:48;
99 Scott Mcdonald, New Zealand 1:49:09;
126 Duncan Morrison, New Zealand 2:01:49.