So, another year begins. Starting with Oceania in Tasmania, 2023 has already seen some encouraging performances, especially from some of the junior elites, and from Lizzie Ingham who, gaining personal places through her wins in W21E, has increased our possible team size for Switzerland. With regard to Oceania Championships the acceptance by IOF of the proposal to have a separate Oceania Sprint Champs in even years is also a positive development. The month finished with the first of the regional championships for the year, the SI Champs.

                                                                                                                                                   Malcolm Ingham

(mandg.ingham@xtra.co.nz)

Oceania Champs – Tasmania

The cost of post-Covid travel being so high, there was only a relatively small contingent of New Zealanders at the Oceania championships held in Tasmania at the beginning of the month. Nevertheless, there were some impressive performances. Perhaps not unexpectedly Lizzie Ingham led the way winning all three W21E individual titles, but there were exceptionally encouraging results among the junior elites in attendance. Of these Kaia Joergensen, running up in W21E, and Zefa Fa’avae, similarly in M21E, were by far the standouts, with Zefa in particular turning a few heads with his two top 5 finishes in the forest races. In the context of the overall small numbers of Kiwis there was also a phenomenal turn-out in W20, with no fewer than 9 entrants in the middle distance, and excellent results from Anna Babington and Tide Fa’avae.

The championships started with the sprint on the University of Tasmania Launceston campus. Some very small, complex (and probably under-sized) gaps on the map led to a lot of confusion in places, while the placing of a couple of controls in particular led to some discussion. In any event all of the elite classes had very clear winners – Aston Key in M21E by just under a minute, Lizzie and Alvin Craig in M20 both by just over a minute, and Nea Shingler in W20 by over 90 seconds. With the 20s on the same courses as the 21Es, Nea’s time was only 16 seconds behind Lizzie. Toby Scott, having only arrived from Europe that morning, was 5^th in M21E, although a pre-Christmas bout of Covid was still having its effects. Zefa, running 20 for the only time in the week was 2^nd in M20, while Anna was a creditable 5^th in W20. Most unlucky was Felix Hunt who actually ran the second fastest time M20 but missed out control 6, the second of 3 controls in a straight line.

M21E: 1. Aston Key (VIC) 14:42, 2. Patrick Jaffe (VIC) 15:35, 3. Brodie Nankervis (TAS) 15:39, 5. Toby Scott (AK) 16:01, 19. Jonty Oram (AK) 19:12.

W21E: 1. Lizzie Ingham (TK) 16:26, 2. Caitlin Young (ACT) 17:36, 3. Evalin Brautigam (SA) 17:55, 4. Kaia Joergensen (PP) 17:59, 15. Zara Stewart (AK) 19:48.

M20: 1. Alvin Craig (NSW) 16:40, 2. Zefa Fa’avae (NL) 17:43, 3. Cooper Horley (NSW) 17:46, 9. Riley Croxford (NL) 18:15, 17. Carryer (AK) 21:13, Felix Hunt (PP) mp.

W20: 1. Nea Shingler (NSW) 16:42, 2. Mila Key (VIC) 18:16, 3. Eszter Kocsik (NSW) 18:38, 5. Anna Babington (PP) 18:48, 8. Katherine Babington (PP) 19:06, 10. Phoebe Hunt (PP) 19:40, 12. Jesse Fa’avae (NL) 22:12, 16. Rebecca Greenwood (AK) 22:56, 18. Tide Fa’avae (NL) 23:19, 20. Kyla Moore (PP) 25:19.

Following the sprint the scene of competition moved to St Helens on the east coast of Tasmania, scene of WMOC in 1992, as well as World Cup races in the late 1990’s and 2015. Monday’s long distance was a new area, Bell’s Marsh, featuring steep granite terrain intermixed with marshy gullies filled with relatively thick vegetation, making route choice being at a premium. This was no more apparent than for the W20s who were presented with a long leg straight to the first control, followed by another from 3-4. The latter of these two gave the option of taking on the green gullies or a more circuitous clean run with over 100 m of climb. Zefa made a late decision to run 21E rather than 20, and produced a top run, finishing in 4^th place, albeit some 15 minutes behind Aston Key. Toby was a further minute back in 5^th, but having targeted the long as a chance for a personal place at WOC, was disappointed not to produce his best. A personal place for Switzerland did go to Lizzie who decimated the W21E field, being nearly a full 13 minutes ahead of second place. Kaia was one of those (along with Felix in M20) who fell foul of the non-use of SI-Air by forgetting to punch and, instead, registering a mp by attempting to swipe a control. Felix’s time of 1:30:32 would in fact have taken the win by over a minute. Anna was again the top Kiwi in W20 with another solid run. Tide Fa’avae showed her potential as well finishing in the top 10.

M21E: 1. Aston Key 1:37:43, 2. Brodie Nankervis 1:43:39, 3. Patrick Jaffe 1:46:00, 4. Zefa Fa’avae 1:52:44, 5. Toby Scott 1:53:38, Jonty Oram mp.

W21E: 1. Lizzie Ingham 1:24:35, 2. Grace Crane (ACT) 1:37:17, 3. Anna Sheldon (QLD) 1:43:47, Kaia Joergensen mp.

M20: 1. Sam Woolford (NSW) 1:31:58, 2. David Stocks  1:32:32, 3. Toby Lang (ACT) 1:35:47, 8. Riley Croxford 1:50:53, 12. Sam Carryer 2:04:37, Ryan Moore (PP) mp, Felix Hunt mp.

W20: 1. Rachel Duckworth (GBR) 1:22:58, 2. Mikaela Gray (QLD) 1:23:37, 3. Natalie Miller (ACT) 1:26:08, 7. Anna Babington 1:29:55, 9. Tide Fa’avae 1:34:10, 10. Katherine Babington 1:35:43, 12. Zara Stewart 1:37:35, 13. Phoebe Hunt 1:37:48, 16. Jesse Fa’avae 1:57:57, 18. Rebecca Greenwood 2:21:50, 20. Kyla Moore 2:37:25.

After the steep hills of Bell’s Marsh, the middle distance on Hunt Tin Mine was a complete contrast, featuring two separate areas of detailed mine workings separated by relatively bland forest which was used to add length. Aston Key and Lizzie both comfortably completed individual trebles. M21E, from a New Zealand perspective, was quite exciting for a while as first Zefa took the lead, to be supplanted by Toby, until it became apparent Aston was having another blistering run, ending with Zefa and Toby swapping finishing places from the long. Kaia was a creditable 6^th in W21E, 6 minutes down but finishing with Lizzie who had caught her at the spectator control. Felix finally got on the board after his 2 mis-punches with a 4^th place in M20. Zara Stewart, another suffering a little post-Covid, also produced her best run of the championships with 6^th in W20, where Tide had another good day.

M21E: 1. Aston Key 29:04, 2. Jim Bailey (GBR) 29:50, 3. Brodie Nankervis 30:20, 4. Toby Scott 31:51, 5. Zefa Fa’avae 33:27, 20. Jonty Oram 43:24.

W21E: 1. Lizzie Ingham 31:32, 2. Grace Crane 33:39, 3. Aislinn Prendergast (VIC) 35:47, 6. Kaia Joergensen 37:33.

M20: 1. Sam Woolford 33:21, 2. Alvin Craig (NSW) 33:39, 3. David Stocks 34:08, 4. Felix Hunt 34:38, 10.  Ryan Moore 39:38, 14.  Sam Carryer 40:40, 15. Riley Croxford 42:12.

W20: 1. Rachel Duckworth 31:24, 2. Eszter Kocsik 32:56, 3. Nea Shingler 33:12, 6. Zara Stewart 35:47,  8. Tide Fa’avae 36:35, 10. Katherine Babington 39:47, 13. Anna Babington 42:45, 15.  Jesse Fa’avae 44:45, 18. Phoebe Hunt 50:09, 20. Isabella Zinzan-Dickie 50:37,21. Rebecca Greenwood 50:47, 24. Kyla Moore 54:26.

The final day of competition, the relay, resulted in wins for the official Australian teams in all classes, illustrating the difficulty New Zealand had in putting together full teams given the generally small numbers. Nevertheless, in M21 Zefa continued his run of form by taking the lead on the first leg, both Felix and Anna, in the 20s’ were only 2 seconds down at the first change over, while in W21 Kaia was just over a minute down. The promising beginnings could not be maintained though as Zara, Phoebe Hunt and Riley Croxford all fell well behind their Australian opponents. Even a good run from Toby on leg 2 in M21 wasn’t enough to stop a gap opening up as Aston Key had yet another stormer for the Aussies. From there on it was more pf a procession although Lizzie starting 6 and a half minutes back did make up 4 of those minutes. A special mention must go the New Zealand M16 team of Finn van Kuelen, James Wright and Matthew Greenwood who did clean out their Australian competition, completing a good week for this trio after James had won the middle distance and figured 3^rd in the long, while Matthew had been second in both the sprint and the long.

M21E: 1. Australia 1:54:26, 2. New Zealand (Zefa Fa’avae, Toby Scott, Jonty Oram) 2:07:42, 3. South Australia 2:19:15.

W21E: 1. Australia 2:14:16, 2. New Zealand (Kaia Joergensen, Zara Stewart, Lizzie Ingham) 2:16:50, 3. South Australia 2:17:55.

M20: 1. Australia 1:50:19, 2. New Zealand (Felix Hunt, Riley Croxford, Ryan Moore) 1:19:50, 3. New South Wales 2:08:37.

W20: 1. Australia 1:49:38, 2. New Zealand (ana Babington, Phoebe Hunt, Katherine Babington) 2:07:05, 3. ACT 2:21:04.

IOF agree to Oceania Sprint Championships proposal

At their Council meeting in mid-January the IOF agreed to the joint ONZ-OA proposal to introduce an Oceania Sprint Championships in even numbered years. As explained last month this will facilitate the awarding of personal places at sprint WOC in the sprint and KO sprint to the M/W21E winners. The sprint championships would be an official championships for all those classes that are included in Youth, Junior and Elite World Championships – M/W16, M/W18, M/W20 and M/W21. In odd years (those with forest WOCs) a standard Oceania Championshiops will be held will be held as now, although any sprint would not be official for the above classes.

The new system for the next several years looks as below:

2024 – Oceania Sprint Championships (NZ) – Jan-Apr – personal places for WOC Sprint 2024

2025 – Full Oceania (NZ) – Jan-Apr – personal places for WOC Forest 2025

2026 – Oceania Sprint Championships (Aust) – Jan-Apr – personal places for WOC Sprint 2026

2026 – Full Oceania (Aust) Sep/Oct – personal places for WOC Forest 2027 – 21E Sprints will not be official “Oceania” Champ Events

2028 – Oceania Sprint Championships (NZ) – Jan-Apr – personal places for WOC Sprint 2028

2029 – Full Oceania (NZ) – Jan-Apr – personal places for WOC Forest 2029

2030 – Oceania Sprint Championships (Aust) – Jan-Apr – personal places for WOC Sprint 2030

Obviously, some work needs to be done on the programme and, in particular on how the KO sprint will work as well as the introduction of a sprint relay.

JWOC Training Squad

As previously announced all athletes who have expressed an interest in selection for JWOC2023 are now formally named as part of a JWOC2023 Training Squad. Kieran Woods will act as coach of this squad and, in association with local coaches and mentors, will advise and help athletes in their preparation for trials and, ultimately, JWOC.

The following athletes are part of the Training Squad.

Men: Tom Aish, Nathan Borton, Sam Carryer, Riley Croxford, Zefa Fa’avae, Nicholas Green, Felix Hunt, Alex Jobbins, Jacob Knoef, Tyler McCavitt, Ryan Moore, Fergus O’Neill, Eddie Swain, Callum Wishart, Daniel Wood, James Wright

Women: Anna Babington, Katherine Babington, Rachel Baker, Kate Borton, Grace Cory-Wright, Tide Fa’avae, Phoebe Hunt, Kaia Joergensen, Molly McGowan, Penelope Salmon, Zara Stewart, Sofia Toes

Kieran has already been in contact with the athletes to initiate his interaction with them.

The JWOC Trials are:

Sat 18th Mar – Sprint distance: Hillmorton High School, Christchurch.

Sat 18th Mar – Middle distance: Butlers Bush, Canterbury.

Sun 19th Mar – Long distance: Laidmore (Mt Ellen), Canterbury.

Fri 7th Apr – Sprint distance: Splash planet, Hastings.

Sat 8th Apr – Long distance: Elsethorpe, Hawke’s Bay.

Sun 9th Apr – Middle distance: Elsethorpe, Hawke’s Bay.

South Island Champs 2023

Little more than 2 months after the last version, the first major national event of the year, the South Island Championships, took place in Nelson on the last weekend of January. Saturday saw a middle distance on Rabbit island, scene of the 2022 ONZ Relays, and a sprint at Nayland College, followed by a very long, long distance at Nelson Lakes on a combination of Teetotal Flat and West Bay.

In the middle M21E was dominated by juniors Zefa Fa’avae and Felix Hunt, with Zefa recording his first win at elite level by 26 seconds from Felix in second. A rare appearance by Nick Hann saw him take 3^rd place another 30 seconds back. In W21E it was Lizzie Ingham all the way with a  5 minute margin over Georgia Whitla. Kaia Joergensen, in winning W20E on the same course as W21E, was marginally faster than Georgia in heading off Katherine Babington and Rachel Baker. M20E went to visiting Australian Toby Cazzolato.

M21E: 1. Zefa Fa’avae (NL) 32:01, 2. Felix Hunt (PP) 32:27, 3. Nick Hann (PP) 32:58, 4. Scott Smith (PP) 37:30, 5. Kurtis Shuker (CM) 38:26, 6. Aaron Prince (PP) 38:29.

W21E: 1. Lizzie Ingham (TK) 32:25, 2. Georgia Whitla (NL) 37:43, 3. Sara Prince (PP) 43:18, 4. Marisol Hunter (PP) 51:15, 5. Heidi Stolberger (NW) 51:18, 6. Sophie Harrison (PP) 55:54.

M20E: 1. Toby Cazzolato (AUS) 38:57, 2. Riley Croxford (NL) 39:50, 3. Alex Jobbins (AK) 44:04, 4. Callum White (AUS) 46:41, 5. Daniel Wood (CM) 46:43, 6. Jacob Knoef (PP) 50:40.

W20E: 1. Kaia Joergensen (PP) 37:29, 2. Katherine Babington (PP) 40:14, 3. Rachel Baker (WN) 40:41, 4. Zara Stewart (AK) 41:28, 5. Phoebe Hunt (PP) 42:44, 6. Tide Fa’avae (NL) 43:43.

The evening sprint again saw Zefa and Felix post the fastest men’s times, although this time both were victorious with Felix winning 20E 9 seconds faster than Zefa’s winning time in 21E. In sprint terms both were comfortably ahad of second place getters Kurtis Shuker in 21E and Ryan Moore in 20E. Lizzie and kaia were again untroubled in winning W21E and W20E respectively.

M21E: 1. Zefa Fa’avae 13:49, 2. Kurtis Shuker 14:03, 3. 3. Scott Smith 14:37, 4. Oliver Egan (PP) 15;23, 5. Tane Cambridge (PP) 15:59, 6. Aaron Prince 16:27.

W21E: 1. Lizzie Ingham 14:38, 2. Amelia Horne (RK) 16:23, 3. Georgia Whitla 17:25, 4. Heidi Stolberger 18:28, 5. Sara Prince 18:39, 6. Marisol Hunter 19:31.

M20E: 1. Felix Hunt 13:40, 2. Ryan Moore (PP) 14:31, 3. Daniel Wood 15:04, 4. Riley Croxford 15:05, 5=. Alex Jobbins 15:19, 5=. Callum White 15:19.

W20E: 1. Kaia Joergensen 15:32, 2. Zara Stewart 16:02, 3. Anna Babington (PP) 16:33. 4. Tide Fa’avae 16:56, 5. Molly McGowan (AK) 16:58, 6. Katherine Babington 17:39.

The long distance on Sunday saw an extended Teetotal Flat map which could be linked to West Bay at the bridge over the Buller River. Riley Croxford’s courses tested both fitness and technical ability, particularly towards the end on the unremittingly difficult West Bay. Even, Matt Ogden was out for nearly 2 hours in winning M21E, although even he shows up on Winsplits with a few mistakes. After the juniors had, relatively speaking, dominated the middle and the long, it was the older elites, with Matt joined by the two Nicks, Smith and Hann, who filled the top 3 here. Felix was a close 4^th to Nick Hann. In W21E Amelia Horne pushed lizzie hard through the first half of the course until her wheels came off on West Bay, ultimately resulting in a mis-punch. Lizzie therefore took the win by an enormous margin ahead of Sara Prince. In M20E Ryan took the honours with Wellington’s Jake McLellan having his best run yet at this level to finish second. Kaia completed a treble in W20E ahead of Rachel Baker.

M21E: 1. Matt Ogden (NL) 1:56:22, 2. Nick Smith (PP) 2:03:11, 3. Nick Hann 2:03:28, 4. Felix Hunt 2:04:01, 5. Zefa Fa’avae 2;14:08, 6. Tane Cambridge 2:18:21.

W21E: 1. Lizzie Ingham 1:37:48, 2. Sara Prince 2:25:57, 3. Marisol Hunter 2:32:44, 4. Heidi Stolberger 2:44:53, 5. Sophie Harrison 2:49:50, 6. Katie Malthus (NL) 3:10:01.

M20E: 1. Ryan Moore 1:47:39, 2. Jake McLellan (WN) 1:51:43, 3. Toby Cazzolato 1:58:22, 4. Alex Jobbins 2:04:38, 5. Daniel Wood 2:07:57, 6. Sam Carryer (AK) 2:19:33.

W20E: 1. Kaia Joergensen 1:16:24, 2. Rachel Baker 1:19:49, 3. Juliet Freeman (PP) 1:27:43. 4. Katherine Babington 1:37:04, 5. Molly McGowan 1:39:29, 6. Anna Babington 1:52:23.

NOL Leaderboard

Following the weekend’s action at the South Island Champs the NOL table has been updated. Of the first 6 races now complete, 3 will count to the overall score, with 4 more scores to come from the ONZ Championships and King’s Birthday.

In the men’s class Matt Ogden has the maximum (300) points, with Felix Hunt holding a narrow lead in second place ahead of Zefa Fa’avae by 0.6 points. Tane Cambridge and Aaron Prince, along with Matt, representing the older elites are in the next two places. Joseph Lynch, having missed both Labour Weekend and the SI weekend, despite having two wins (200 points) has no third counting score.

In the women, Lizzie Ingham similarly has the maximum of 300 at this stage. Eight of the next 9 women’s places are held by juniors with Katherine Babington, Kaia Joergensen and Anna Babington the next three ahead of Sara Prince, the only other genuine 21, apart from Lizzie, in the top 10.

Of the non-elites, Greg Flynn is highest place in the men in 11^th place with 180 points from 3 wins in M40. Charlotte Wood of Counties holds that honour in the women, currently in 13^th position.

The link to the entire tables is https://www.orienteering.org.nz/nol-nsl-sportclass-leaderboard/ and can be reached from the ONZ webpage.

World Cup Round 1 – Selection Notice

The first round of the 2023 IOF World Cup will be held in Ostfold, Norway from 26-30 April 2023, and will consist of an middle distance, long distance and relay. New Zealand is entitled to enter up to 4 men and 4 women. Selection will be based on known form .

All athletes interested in selection for Round 1 of the IOF World Cup should notify their interest, year of birth, and cell phone number to the Convenor of Selectors Al Cory-Wright (alistaircorywright@gmail.com) by 14 February 2023.

Coming up

Immediately on the horizon i.e. in a couple of day’s time is SOW2023 in Christchurch. This features the next round of the National Sprint League, with sprint, KO sprint and sprint relay.

Also, as mentioned last month the Taranaki Turkey Traverse returns on 18 February. The 2023 version will involve a mass start and include multiple maps, including both bush and sprint areas. Entries can be made on enterO at https://entero.co.nz/evento.php and close on 16 February.

Also on enterO are entries for the two National Sprint League races at Katoa Po. These will take place on the Saturday afternoon, prior to the night relay, and early afternoon Sunday. The Saturday race at Taupo Botanic Gardens promises a very different style of sprint to that usually experienced in New Zealand.