The idea for hosting a knockout sprint event in 2025 was formed some time between the PAPO Christmas event and the High Performance camp in December 2024. Nathan Borton and Joseph Lynch realised there weren’t many knockouts on the 2025 calendar, despite it being such a fun and dynamic format. They agreed it deserved to be at least a couple of events a year they were keen to run one in Christchurch. They scheduled  it right after Nationals. This helped with promotion and early planning. 

Originally, they had hoped for 36 men and 36 women to make a full knockout , so they were amazed to end up with 110 entries! The age range was impressive too, from seasoned sprinters trying knockout for the first time,  to younger runners giving it a go and of course, some very enthusiastic elites. After the Oceania Sprints, this will most probably be the second-biggest knockout event held in New Zealand.

Some feedback noted that the first couple of races had too many barriers, and the gaps were hard to interpret the detail quickly. But, Nathan is happy with the course design – his goal was to bring the same level of urban orienteering complexity he’d experienced in Europe. 

There were plenty of challenges in the event planning. Getting permissions for the two event locations wasn’t easy, with multiple landowners and residential providers involved around the university campuses. Huge credit to Joe for navigating all the negotiations, which secured access to new areas like the route past the Sonoda residences. The construction zone at Dovedale changed constantly, requiring map updates over several months. Even in the last few weeks, the final three legs had to be altered. And with so many entries, a big challenge was scheduling all the races to fit into one day. Barriers even changed between aand within rounds, adding to the day’s unpredictability — but hey, orienteers love a challenge!

Nathan said it was non-stop on the day setting out controls, briefing marshals, tweaking barriers, and printing results. He gives a big thanks to Coady Clarke for his huge digital contributions and pre-event prep, as well as to all the volunteers ed by Katie Symons who rolled up their sleeves and kept everything running smoothly. And of course, the sunshine after Easter’s rain added to the great vibe of the day.

Nathan wraps up by saying how fun the format is—“that’s what originally inspired us to do it.”

Knockout photos by: Joseph Lynch, Nic Gorman & Joolz Moore