Nick Hann’s hard work, determination, strength through challenging terrain and superb navigational skills have earned him a fantastic 5th place in the 2014 JWOC Middle Distance final. CONGRATULATIONS NBH!  

A sunny day for the middle qualification, so we were glad for the 10.00am start so that we did not have to run in the heat. The middle qualifier always passes quickly as there are 3 runners beginning at the same time. There are 3 courses and the fastest 20 on each course qualify for […]

The thunderstorms continued through the previous night so we were relieved to see clear weather for the Long distance day – though we were not confident it would last in the mountain area. We had an early start with the early runners needing to be at 6.50am bus. The terrain was hilly pine forest between […]

The athletes were quarantined in the Samakov Arena – a large complex with several levels. The warm up area was inside on the basement floor and the prestart was also inside the building. The athletes could hear the thunder outside and the earlier runners had the advantage of dry conditions. The heavy rain had spectators […]

Well what can I say, this was my first ever JWOC race and I’ve been caught out unlucky.  Mixed emotions flow through my body and trying to encapsulate this experience is hard. I feel frustrated at the “would’ve” situations that lie right in front of me yet what a hell of a race. Technically I […]

Download the Orienteering NZ Media Release: Robertson Wins Gold – Media Release 23 July 2014 Thunderstorms did not prevent Tim Robertson from backing up his 2013 Bronze medal with a 2014 JWOC Gold medal in Samokov, Bulgaria   News Articles: International Orienteering Federation: Junior World Orienteering Championships: Sprint golds to New Zealand and Sweden International Orienteering […]

Download the OreinteeringNZ Media Release: Robertson Wins Gold – Media Release 23 July 2014 Thunderstorms did not prevent Tim Robertson from backing up his 2013 Bronze medal with a 2014 JWOC Gold medal in Samokov, Bulgaria   Download the OrienteeringNZ Media Release: Robertson Wins Gold – Media Release 23 July 2014

The 2014 Junior World Orienteering Championship races start Tuesday night (Tues 22nd July, 7pm NZST) with the Sprint. JWOC2014 is being held in Borovets, Bulgaria. New Zealand has a team of 6 women and 6 men plus coach and team manager. In addition, several kiwis have travelled to support the team. The New Zealand JWOC 2014 […]

The 2014 Junior World Orienteering Championship races start Tuesday night (Tues 22nd July, 7pm NZST) with the Sprint. JWOC2014 is being held in Borovets, Bulgaria. New Zealand has a team of 6 women and 6 men plus coach and team manager. In addition, several kiwis have travelled to support the team. The New Zealand JWOC 2014 […]

The teams have arrived, the flags are raised, start lists are up, and you can count the hours until your start. This is the period when nerves start to set in. A morning jwalk around the long model map served well to keep our minds off the competition. The forest floor is very clean for […]

While the team enjoyed a sleep in and late breakfast, Karen Blatchford and I headed up on the gondola to run/walk as far up Mt Musala (2925m) as we could go before lunch. The altitude made us quite breathless when we ran – well, that is what we told ourselves when we were wheezing and […]

Sunday was a full rest day here in Borovets for the NZ and Aussie teams, with a rally just down the road to keep the boys occupied for the morning and also keeping us here with the road into the hotel being closed. The girls went for a walk into Borovets town to have a […]

In the lead up to JWOC our team along with the Aussies have done a series of simulation races where you are given all the relevant information to simulate a JWOC race. We did a long race, a middle race and a sprint, which Cam has already reported on. The long JWOC simulation was held […]

For our final race simulation, we headed out to what Nick recalls as the “rabid dog” map or the model map in a filthy part of Samokov. After a quick jog of the model map and a small dog scare later, we lined up ready to hit the streets.

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 […]

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 […]