The  Zespri AIMS Games School Sporting Championships introduced orienteering as a new sport for year 7 & 8 students. So a growing number of young adventurers tried orienteering for the first time, testing their spatial awareness and practicing using landmarks and maps to get around.

Locals were surprised at the numbers entered as it was double what the organisers were originally expecting as a newly-introduced sport. A lot of time was invested by local club members from Orienteering Bay of Plenty to make sure the kids could plot their own routes and navigate their way round a fun course.

Hundreds of enthusiastic competitors were ready to participate. Approximately 300 students entered, many competing in both the 15-minute sprint event and the one-hour rogaining event. The sprint took place in Tauranga’s Historic Village, while rogaining was held at McLaren Falls, challenging teams to collect as many controls as possible.

Ōtūmoetai Intermediate School had the largest group, with 23 students eager to compete. Among them was 11-year-old Manaia Climo, who discovered her map-reading skills earlier this year and was excited to participate. The students expressed pride in being part of this historic event, with coaches noting a growing interest in orienteering.

Macka Wagstaff, a 17-year-old from Mount Maunganui College, designed the sprint courses for the event, bringing his four years of orienteering experience to the task. He reflected on the excitement of seeing so many young people engaged in the sport, which he felt was a great physical and mental challenge.

The organising team had many learnings around integrating a typical orienteering event into the AIMS format with their procedures and marketing specifications (e.g. around branding etc…). Quite a few participants also compete in other sports so there were a few who only competed in one event and a few requests for start times so that their child could make their next event. AIMS managed the initial communications with schools, so some communications around entering the orienteering races as well as a second sport and if the rogaine counted as a team sport were not picked up until later.  The spectator control on the sprint had good visibility into the map (down the streets) enabling spectators to see lots of competitors and cheer them on. The rogaine event centre was great with a more relaxed feel to the day.  As always there are learnings when you are catering for schools with a huge variation of orienteering experience. From complete novices, to the larger school teams (mostly Auckland) who were well prepared and have come from a well established school sprint series. Some want it harder, some want it easier. Some want it on another day so their child can attend another event. We hope next year to encourage more Taranaki year 7 and 8’s to attend. Our club events provide great training and we are happy to help new juniors in the sport.

Sprint
Number of schools – 58
Sprint Division   Individuals 
Year 7 Boys 51
Year 7 Girls 74
Year 8 Boys 82
Year 8 Girls 54
Total 261

Rogaine
Number of schools – 46 

Rogaine Division   Individuals /  Teams
Year 7 Boys    33 /14
Year 7 Girls    64 / 27
Year 7 Mixed    14 / 5
Year 8 Boys    79 / 34
Year 8 Girls  52 / 23
Year 8 Mixed   15 /7
Total      257 / 110

Results – Aims Games Orienteering (obop.org.nz)

Overall it was an amazing way to expose more schools and kids to orienteering, navigating with a map. 
If there is an increase in numbers, we my need to cap entries within each division.

Feedback was very positive, some that was received included:

• “Jessie had a great day, thanks so much for the mahi”
• “Loved it, and looking forward to tomorrow! Thanks to those who helped organise”
• “Thanks team Orienteering Bay of Plenty for making a fabulous first day and it went like clockwork. Look forward to tomorrow’s event. This is a great sport to have included in the aims games!”
• “So proud of my daughter participating in the Zespri Aims Games this year doing Orienteering!  She absolutely loved it”

Further reading: Orienteering featured in the September 11 “Aims Gamer” magazine
Orienteering featured in The NZ Herald and Bay of Plenty Times