World Orienteering Championship NZ Athlete profile | Matt Ogden

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended:3

2014 Italy (52nd Long), 2015 Scotland (26th Middle), 2018 Latvia (39th Long)

In 2014 my preparations were atrocious, 2018 the WOC Middle was my first race for 2 months. I was mostly satisfied in 2015 but still very inexperienced at the senior level.

2. Your orienteering club(s):

Nelson Orienteering Club these days, my “mother” club is North West in Auckland. I run for OK Linné (Sweden) when competing overseas and will run Jukola (Finland) for them soon after arriving to Europe. All three clubs have been amazing with so many remarkable people, for this and I am grateful.

3. How did you get into orienteering?

The humble market growing lands of Kumeu, West Auckland gave rise to Gene Beveridge and myself. Gene’s dad, Mike, passed on his passion for this amazing sport onto us. Since then, O has generated so many amazing experiences and memories.

4. Favourite training:

For sure a nice technical Middle distance. Fun in training, even more fun in competition. But I enjoy any session in nice terrain with a map in hand.

5. Most memorable map experience:

Paradana OOcup 2011 Slovenia. I was still a junior but remember demanding technical terrain and courses in a beautiful country.

I also remember having lunch with Jamie Stewart and Penny Kane and news had just broken of the horrific Norway attacks. This put life very quickly into perspective.

6. One word that sums up your orienteering: Absolute

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition?

World class competition in technically and physically demanding alpine terrain, immaculate organisation by the Swiss and spending time with the NZ team and friends I haven’t seen for some time!

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC?

I have no goals yet post WOC. I am pushing as hard as I have ever towards the champs in July and then the World Cup in August. I am using “this is my last” to create a sense of urgency and motivation to leave no stone unturned. After this, I do not know – but if history is to go by, I will no doubt need to find another goal to chase. Whether that will involve a map, time will tell.

9. What could everyone do more of, to improve their orienteering skills?

Analyse more deliberately and feedback the learnings directly into the next O session e.g. I will check the compass at least every 5 seconds.

To truly attain improvement towards better performance, you should be analysing some form of orienteering daily. Training camps or 5-day competitions are quite often the best mechanism to achieve this.

World Orienteering Championship NZ athlete profile | Briana Steven

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended: Zero! My first WOC but 4th year heading to Europe for international orienteering

2. Your NZ orienteering clubs: PAPO proud, but shout out to the Bay Area Orienteering Club who I was with while studying at Berkeley

3. How did you get into orienteering?

I was tearing-up the string course scene from a young age as both mum and dad orienteered before I was born

4. Favourite training? Microsprints – all of the navigational challenge, none of the physical effort when you are running only 300m at a time on a 1:500 scale map

5. Most memorable map experience: Maze-O at the Anza Borrego Orienteering Weekend in January. Incredible rock and cliff formations but crazy hard orienteering. First time in years I have been genuinely lost with zero clue of where I was or how I got there, only figured it out when I could see my friends across this big ravine, right next to the control I was trying to navigate to.

6. One word that sums up your style of orienteering: Careful

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition? Coming into the finish chute with (hopefully) a massive Swiss crowd and all the cheering even if it’s not for me specifically

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC?

Really looking forward to the postponed Nationals in Hawkes Bay and all the great NZ orienteering vibes during the events (really been missing that)

9. What could everyone do more of, to improve their orienteering skills?

Slow down! No one can run before they can walk, if you find yourself making mistakes often then try doing races with a bit less speed. Give yourself more time to absorb features and check for parallel errors or potential mistakes before they happen.

World Orienteering Championship NZ athlete profile | Amelia Horne

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended: 0

2. Your orienteering clubs: Red Kiwis and Nelson

3. How did you get into orienteering? Through my brother, he went to a club event initially and when the next one came round I tagged along, although it was at junior camp where I really got into it.

4. Favourite training: a long trail run

5. Most memorable map experience (and why):

Most recently would be Hogsback Ultralong last year. In summary, it was long, hilly, cold, I had some big mistakes and I bonked.

6. One word that sums up your orienteering: Focused

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition? The terrain

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC? For orienteering, applying the learnings from WOC. Non orienteering, my brother wants a half Ironman sibling showdown, so that may be on the cards.

9. What could everyone do more of, to improve their orienteering skills? Keep it simple

World Orienteering Championship NZ athlete profile | Joseph Lynch

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended? One

2. Your orienteering club: PAPO

3. How did you get into orienteering? I was lucky to have a teacher at High School who introduced me to the sport. Anna Engleback+Paul Teesdale-Spittle were the ones who taught us how to orienteer during trips to schools competitions

4. Favourite training: I love track sessions. Lots of 1000m/400m/200m reps. The grass tracks in Christchurch get quite good usage year-round

5. Most memorable map experience: Running against my idols at the WC1 Sprint Relay last year (for perspective; I have photos of these people on my duvet cover). Tim dropped me off in 4th and I proceeded to lose 7 places…

6. One word that sums up your orienteering: Fanging

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition? Being part of such a great team and learning from the senior members

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC?

I love night events and rogaining so the NightNav events in Christchurch combine these perfectly for me

9. What could everyone do more of, to improve their orienteering skills? Watch more orienteering! It’s easily accessible online and all the replays now go on on youtube for free. At the very least it might make you more interested in orienteering

World Orienteering Championship NZ athlete profile | Gene Beveridge

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended: 5

2. Your orienteering club: North West

3. How did you get into orienteering? Through my parents

4. Favourite training: Long trail runs

5. Most memorable map experience: Every time in Lunsen in Uppsala, Sweden. Very nice forest and very detailed terrain, really fun when things go well.

Here’s the last race I did there: https://www.numberoneaucklanddoma.com/maps/show_map.php…

6. One word that sums up your orienteering: Work-in-progress

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition?

Racing in a great map and course.

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC?

No orienteering planned after WOC, it’s pretty quiet in Canada. I have Canadian Trail Running Champs in August.

9. What could everyone do more of, to improve their orienteering skills?

Training with people who are better than you will make it clear where you can improve.

World Orienteering Championship NZ athlete profile | Lizzie Ingham

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended: 10

2. Orienteering club(s): Orienteering Taranaki and Orienteering Wellington, I still run for Halden SK when in Europe

3. How did you get into orienteering?

My parents dragged me along until eventually I resigned myself to my fate.

4. Favourite training: Something I really miss from Norway is night orienteering training, definitely a fun session and great enforced simplification training.

5. Most memorable map experience: World Cup sprint in Wellington 2013. Racing and podiuming in my home city in front of the people who supported me to get there.

6. One word that sums up your orienteering: Consistent

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition? Terrain that should suit us kiwis a lot better than other WOCs have. And the views.

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC?

Beginning my world masters career. Often held in far more interesting places than WOC (this one aside).

9. What could everyone do more of, to improve their orienteering skills?

Draw your route on the map after every event or training, it makes you think through the decisions, techniques and routes you’ve taken and what you did well or might have done differently.

World Orienteering Championship NZ athlete profile | Toby Scott

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended: 6

2. Orienteering club(s): Auckland, Germany: OLV Steinberg, Scandinavia: IL Tyrving

3. How did you get into orienteering? Darren Ashmore taught a course at my intermediate school

4. Favourite training:Long hill intervals

5. Most memorable map experience: Swiss O days Sanetsch, very special terrain, like running on an ocean made of rock

6. One word that sums up your orienteering: Fun

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition? A very physically challenging long course in beautiful alpine terrain. I expect the organisation to be flawless.

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC?

Mostly looking forward to having a break! But I will also run OOCup in Slovenia and the world cup forest races in Czechia.

9. What could everyone do more of, to improve their orienteering skills?

Use post analysis tools such as Livelox to see where you are losing time or had bad direction/route choice.

       
World Orienteering Championship NZ athlete profile | Kaia Joergensen

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended: Zero

2. Orienteering club: PAPO

3. How did you get into orienteering? My parents are orienteering fanatics

4. Favourite training: Terrain run or control pick orienteering training

5. Most memorable map experience? Doing a Chris Forne course in the mountains and being out for over three hours to be beaten by my mum by 3 seconds. I was so gutted.

6. One word that sums up your orienteering: Instinctive

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition? The super cool and detailed rocky middle terrain.

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC?

I looking forward to the Canterbury Champs and Nationals.

9. What could everyone do more of, to improve their orienteering skills? I know I need to work on compass contact throughout each leg!

World Orienteering Championship NZ Athlete profile | Tim Robertson

1. Number of WOC’s previously attended:v10

2. Orienteering club(s): Orienteering Hutt Valley, Koovee (international) Bromma-Vällingby SOK (Sweden).

3. How did you get into orienteering? – My sister (Laura Robertson) started in intermediate. After a few races where my parents got sick of waiting for her to finish, they joined in too and shortly after I was roped in every Sunday too.

4. Favourite training: Double threshold, 3 x 10 minutes in the morning and 25 x 400m in the afternoon

5. Most memorable map experience: NM Ultralong from 2014.

6. One word that sums up your orienteering: Simple

7. What are you most looking forward to in this WOC competition? Trying to master the technical middle distance and relay terrain

8. What orienteering goals or events are you looking forward to after this WOC? Czech Republic World Cup with a strong New Zealand team, the European Champs in Italy and then coming home to New Zealand for summer.

9. What could everyone do more of to improve their orienteering skills? Work orienteering into your everyday routine.