Orienteers converge for an extremely long weekend...

Orienteers converge for an extremely long weekend...

Most of New Zealand's best orienteers will be in the Hawkes Bay this weekend for the Wellington and Central Districts Regional Champs. The "Deco Double" is the final major event before competition begins in earnest after the Christmas break, with the Waitangi Carnival and ANZ Test Match in the Central North Island building up to Nationals (and World Champs trials) in the Wairarapa at Easter.

Over in the Bay a gruelling programme awaits the competitors with two long distance races, a middle race and a sprint. For the elite competitors this comes to a total of around 4 hours racing over the weekend with conditions varying from slumped farmland terrain with a myriad of lakes, pockets of bush, rock detail and giant hills to an urban sprint race through the shops and schools of Havelock North on Sunday Evening.

Interest in the strong mens field centres on the return from a competive lay-off of one of New Zealand's "big three" orienteers Karl Dravitski. The dairy farmer from the Taranaki is always strong and tough to beat. However Darren Ashmore will also be there. The Outdoor Instructor fired up after a successful return to orienteering at the Auckland Champs in September. The last of the big three, world adventure racing champion Chris Forne of Christchurch is still on an extended OE, but coming up from the south Danish international orienteer and top mountain runner Carsten Joergensen will keep the standards high. Junior Jack Vincent, fresh from dominating the Junior grades at the Oceania Orienteering Carnival in Australia, will step up to the Elite Grade and look to take a few scalps. The extreme length and physical endurance required for these races might put paid to his chances of winning, but that time won't be far away.

However, in the womens field top junior Greta Knarston has a very real chance of taking some titles. Knarston who has been orienteering less than three years is improving at such a rate that barring injury she has every chance of being New Zealands best ever female orienteer, very very soon. Her most recent flabbergasting result was an outright second in the Oceania Sprint Distance race, clearly in front of the New Zealand Elite women, and behind only Australian legend Tash Key. Knarstons main rivals will be Gisborne athletes Penny Kane and Rachel Smith. Kane, the current national middle distance champion, now has a bit of orienteering under her belt following Oceania and knows how to tough it out, while Smith has long been the hier apparent to the retired Tania Robinson and has been training well of late. It should be a great battle.

Results and commentary will follow.