Moving forward with ONZ Nationals 2020 at Labour Weekend

By WgtnOC - Fri 18 Sep 2020 3:55pm

Events, Nationals, Embargo, Entries, NZOC2020, covid-19

Ngā mihi nui!

We’re delighted to let you know where we’re at with planning for the 2020 ONZ National Foot-O Championships. Further to Orienteering NZ’s recent major events update, Orienteering Wellington would like to present our plan for the 2020 Nationals.

Our key considerations in developing this plan have been to ensure the safety of competitors and to follow government guidelines on gatherings and social distancing.

If all of New Zealand is at COVID-19 Alert Level 1, or lower, we will run Nationals under our “Level 1” plan (see below).
If any part of New Zealand is at a COVID-19 Alert Level between 1 and 2, we will run Nationals under our “Level 2” plan (see below).
If Manawatū or Wellington are at a COVID-19 Level greater than 2, we will not run an event.
If Manawatū or Wellington is at level 2 or lower, and any other part of New Zealand is at a COVID-19 Alert Level greater than 2, we will consider running a multi-day event over Labour Weekend. This won’t be the Nationals as such, but will use many of the same high quality maps and courses.

Given the uncertainty around when and where Alert Levels might change, Orienteering Wellington will confirm which Level Plan we will use at the end of September.

In line with government advice we ask that participants do not attend if they are unwell.

See our decision criteria.

Level 1 plan

Under this plan, we will run a 4-day event over 23-26 October 2020, with the usual format of Sprint, Long, Middle, Relay. We will use the normal ONZ Nationals rules. For example, ONZ Nationals rules for start draws will apply, with competitors of the same class starting in blocks.

There will be a prize-giving ceremony, however there won’t be any organised social events.

There won’t be any food or coffee at the events and competitors must bring their own water.

Because competitors will be travelling from all parts of the country, we will be asking everyone to:

observe social distancing
sanitise frequently
follow all government guidelines, including use of masks where appropriate
stay at home if unwell.

Level 2 plan

Under this plan, we will instead run a 3-day event over 24-26 October 2020 —so no event on Friday. We will not run the relay under this plan. Instead we hope to run the Sprint on Monday, and if this isn’t possible we will have individual courses on the Relay map. We will use the Level 2 COVID Rule Changes approved by ONZ Council for the Nationals rules.

Travel groups

The most important rule change is to the Start Draw, so we can keep numbers at the event centre under the limit of a hundred people, including organisers. Competitors will be grouped by club. A club, or group of clubs, will be identified as a travel group.

Each travel group will remain the same throughout the weekend. Competitors who are not members of a club, or not travelling with their club group, will be asked to advise where they are travelling from.

Each travel group will be allocated to a time block and there will be a random start by course within that block. The start order of the time blocks may vary for each event.

Other requirements

Competitors will be asked to arrive at the event centre just prior to their start time and to leave as soon as possible afterwards.

There will be no prize-giving ceremony and no social event.

All procedures as part of the Level 1 plan will also be followed.

See further details of how the events will run under the Level 2 plan.

Entries and info

Entries are open. Information about payments and refunds can be found on the Nationals website.

Enter the Nationals 2020

Go to the Nationals website to sign up to event information and stay in touch.

Ngā mihi
Nationals 2020 Organising Committee

Bring your ONZ trophies

Please bring your trophies to Nationals. If you aren’t planning to attend this year then pass them on to someone who is planning to attend, or return to Christo Peters at Orienteering NZ.

Event sites

The map below shows the location of the event sites.

Embargoed areas

The following areas are embargoed for orienteering until after Labour Weekend. No training is within this area shown with a map of any sort, to test route choices or take part in any activity that may give a navigational advantage.