We drove 20 minutes, to Reylovo, to run the a middle distance simulation using the same format as the long distance – designated vehicles, model map, start draw and a last chance to practice through the race day routines. The NZ boys achieved celebrity status when an old gentleman appeared and struck up a conversation […]

A lovely feeling to have no alarms set and to know the only deadline in the morning was the finish of the breakfast shift at 10.00am. The morning was spent in a variety of ways; some reading through JWOC Bulletin 4, others converting the sprint map to use on Catching Features, secretive photo sessions for […]

An earlier start to the day, with the athletes expected to have breakfasted and be ready for their ‘JWOC shuttle’ service to the start of the Long distance simulation by 8.30am. It was an 80 minute drive to the town of Marchaevo. We arrived at the finish area, then ‘shuttled’ the athletes up a very […]

We woke to misty rain, enjoyed our breakfast and then headed to “Gorvedarci “ for the morning training. The drive takes us past, what are becoming, familiar Bulgarian scenes – horses grazing on the main street of villages, chooks on the verges of the side streets, people biking or walking with their makeshift trolleys made […]

The team arrived in various stages to our accommodation at the Lion Hotel in Borovets: There was an advance party at midday who established base camp and enjoyed checking out the spacious rooms in the quiet, peaceful hotel set in the trees. Some ventured out for a 30 minute run to check the local surroundings, […]

“Today we had fun.” Okay that was Tim’s attempt at a blog post. Maybe I should write the rest. First training with the team was today at a map called Shiroki Dol (pronounced Shreaky Doll). The Australians couldn’t resist spending another day without us so they came along to the training too. We took a […]

Recently I have been staying in Samokov with Brodie Nankervis, Matt Doyle and Ashley Nankervis. We have a small apartment complete with grandpa slippers and dog-skin carpets (probably from some of the feral dogs on the street). What is great about the place is we have our own kitchen so we can cook our own […]

Alice and I arrived in France looking forward to the European summer, and what did we find? Rain, rain, rain- we seem to have brought the Auckland weather with us! However, we did not let this stop us. While recovering from jet lag after 30 hours of travelling, we have seen so much of the […]

After an action packed 32-hour flight with The Shmoose through Singapore and Frankfurt, we went our separate ways at Milan Central Station. He joined up with Becky and Helena for a 2-day giro in Milan, while I hopped on a train to meet up with Host Family Version 1.0 in Trento (the city of the […]

Today is our non race day as even though there is a sprint race no buses are running to and from the event. So instead we are all going to go exploring round Asiago with a long run thrown in the mix also did house / flat keeping jobs including blog posts. We also decided […]

Step 1 – Finding the supermarket. The best way to do this is to ask a friendly Italian local. Firstly, try the typical “do you speak english?” and receive the typical answer “no”, or, even better, a blank look. Next, try saying supermarket in Italian with horrendous pronounciation, which receives another blank look. Following this, french […]

A couple of days ago our first race in Italia started with a bang! Venice filled with alleyways, tourists and the all-exhausting heat.  First of all, my hat goes well and truly off to anyone who ran the WOC races. I know I couldn’t concentrate well because of the heat, seriously sapped everything out of […]

On Wednesday I ran a long distance training race with the Norwegians on a very steep map with rocks and a network of tracks. This area is likely to be similar to the southern part of the JWOC long distance terrain. Picking the correct route-choices was essential, as was control through the detailed areas. I […]

It been over 30 hours since I left Auckland and I’ve finally arrived Venice at the strike of midnight. Having stopped for 6 hours in Singapore’s Changi Airport, I managed to find amusement with the various gardens, movies and a roof top pool. Surprisingly, they had a butterfly enclosure to explore, though having to bear […]

Right at this moment Helena, Shamboozle and I have our feet up in our hostel in Milan. We’ve got two nights here before heading to Venice for the beginning of the Italy Five Days. What an awesome chance to be here and am feeling extremely lucky. No matter how you say it, this city has […]

After nearly 50 hours of travelling I finally made it to Sofia to meet up with the Norwegians. Some slight confusion about when they were arriving but I spotted a Bulgarian wearing a Halden SK jacket who GPS units to give to the Norwegians and we managed to find them together. We are using these GPS units for each training which is useful for analysing how we ran, but also means the coaches can watch us live out at the forest. Good for discussing what happened right afterwards and also finding those runners who are completely lost.

Image – Middle Podium (Photo Credit: Andrea Cardosi) Another year, another WOC, and here we are in sunny (but also very thundery) Italy on the Altopiano of Asiago in the foothills of the Dolomites. Wh

I got fairly bored during my 16 hour stop-over in Hong Kong so I decided to mission it up Lantau Peak. The airport was fairly lacking in things to do and I felt a bit of an adventure would be a good way to pass the time. At 934 metres, Lantau Peak is the second […]

An interview with Rob Jessop (AK) – team coach for the 2014 New Zealand Junior World Orienteering Championships Team. How did he start?

Back in Wellington I couldn’t resist the call of Waikawa, so Becky, The Moose and I drove on up there today for some badass training. Originally The Moose had a hairdressing appointment booked at the same time but after a quick call to him he rescheduled. When it comes to orienteering, Shamillionaire’s perms can wait. […]

The College Sport Wellington Prize-giving and Sprint event, held at Victoria University, was an opportunity to fine tune some sprint skills for 3 of the local Wellington JWOCers before they head to Eu

Saturday got off to a good start waking up to a package at the front doorstep. Inside was an exciting parcel put together by Bivouac/Outdoor. Having been generously sponsored a pair of X-Talon Inov8s alongside this – I’d like to say a massive thank you to Bivouac for their support. Having worked at the Sylvia […]

The countdown to JWOC 2014 in Borovets, Bulgaria has already begun. There is lots of interesting reading…

Today I ran a good hill session out near Sumner. My Achilles has been improving steadily over the past 4 weeks and I have built up to 90+ min runs successfully. It is great to be running again even if it does mean the amount of study that gets done is considerably less. After seeing […]

By Sophie From before I even started High School I had been told by various different people about the Hillary Challenge event run by OPC, In effect how amazing it was and that I would really enjoy it. So when our Cashmere High School team qualified for the national final in September last year I […]

I’m excited to announce that Science in Sport have agreed to sponsor me for my European conquest! Science in Sport (SiS) is a leading sports nutrition company that produces high-quality nutritional products for athletes. SiS has products taken after training/competing to promote recovery as well as gels/bars to have within exercise that increase energy levels. […]

I just thought I would do a blog to let people know what I am actually doing while I am away for four months! I am currently writing in Melbourne airport after finally escaping the worries of trying to fit my bike and four months’ worth of gear into my 30kg and 7kg carry on […]

Over the last month or so I have been competing in several Xterra trail runs with local orienteer’s Piret Klade, Tim Robertson, and Jamie Stewart. Xterra is a series of trail runs with breathtaking views, jagged coastlines and lush native bush. There are four races the series this year each consisting of a short, middle, […]

Whether you are preparing for a major race, practicing for a night event or just wanting to just brush up on some of the basics, catching features is the ultimate supplement to your training! For those not familiar with catching features (CF), it is a computer game played by a number of orienteer’s from around […]

Just like that Queen’s Birthday is all wrapped up and we’re into June! I’m leaving at the end of this month for Europe, putting pre-JWOC plans into practice. First stop will be Milan, Italy where I’ll be meeting up with Shamus and Helena. We have a couple of days to find our feet and the […]