September always seems to be a bit of a dead month coming after the excitement of JWOC and WOC, and before the Australian Championships Carnival. For that reason it is the time to pause, take stock and work out where we are. Hence…no major event reports but a lot of reading. How did we really […]

Clearly the single outstanding highlight of August was Tim Robertson’s silver medal in the WOC sprint – the first ever podium finish at WOC for NZL. However, there were other pleasing results, as well as a few disappointments. Also, we should not forget the performances of Georgia Skelton at the Junior WMTBO Champs in Austria. […]

Stable runs from the New Zealand men’s relay team got us a 17th, 1 place down from the our good result in Scotland 3 years ago. We were very happy with the 16th at that World Champs because it was much better than previous years. This year felt somewhat different though, maybe because the expectations were higher. However, 17th is good, looking at the incredible strength of the competition, and reflects 3 stable runs, far different to last year’s disaster. Our Women’s team placed similarly, 19th.

After the National Championships earlier this year and with the Master’s completed I made the decision to have another crack at WOC. The objectives of this WOC project focused on seeing how an NZ based campaign compared to others I have done; in terms of the experience, the feelings, and the performances.

The WOC long distance on Turaida was always going to be tough. Especially so for Gene Beveridge and Lizzie Ingham, respectively recovering from a persistant bug and to full fitness post-op, and so it proved although not only did these two hang in for respectable results, but Matt Ogden produced an excellent run in the […]

Saturday 11 August brings the long distance events at both WOC in Latvia and WMTBOC in Austria. Overall 7 Kiwis will be In action, 4 in the former and three in the later. After a day of 30 degree temperatures in Sigulda tomorrow promises not only to be cooler (22-24 C) but also cloudy. This […]

The NZL men’s relay team of Tim Robertson, Matt Ogden and Gene Beveridge improved 8 places from last  year in finishing 17th in a tight WOC relay in Turaida. Tim continued his excellent form and was 3rd through the first radio control before the week’s races started to catch up on him on the steep […]

So far my experience this year at the World Orienteering Champs has been limited to spectating, but I finally hit the start line tomorrow in my 4th WOC relay.

There have been countless times over the last years, months and weeks that I’ve wanted to write publicly about the health issues I’ve been experiencing. But I’ve held off, firstly as I haven’t felt ready, and secondly because it’s such a long story, I just haven’t quite known where to start.

Lizzie Ingham and Tim Robertson were the top NZL performers in a tough WOC middle distance run in Sigulda today. Lizzie, returning to WOC competition only 10 months after heart surgery, continued a remarkable run of results in finishing 24th in the women’s field. Her WOC middle distance record since her first appearance in 2011 shows […]

Kiwi orienteering star Tim Robertson claimed New Zealand’s first ever medal at a World Orienteering Championships on Sunday in Latvia. In a historic performance in which the 22-year-old led at every split time, Robertson was ahead by 0.7 seconds at the final pre-warning before being edged out of the gold medal by Switzerland’s Daniel Hubmann by a slim 1.1 seconds to take silver.

New Zealand has matched its previous best result in the WOC sprint relay finishing 12th in the 2018 event run in Riga this afternoon. The NZL team of Laura Robertson, Tim Robertson, Cameron de L’Isle and Lizzie Ingham were just over 5 minutes behind winners Sweden who successfully defended their title from last year. Laura, […]

On a  wet afternoon in Riga Old Town, Tim Robertson has produced a stunning performance to win New Zealand’s first ever medal at a World Orienteering Championships. Leading at every split time, and by 0.7s at the final pre-warning Tim was edged out of the gold medal by Switzerland’s Daniel Hubmann by a mere 1.1s.

July has seen an explosion of international events. This includes not only JWOC but also WUOC, EYC, WMOC and WMMTBOC. Notwithstanding some excellent JWOC results it has also seen New Zealand win no less than an unprecedented 6 gold medals! Reports, in chronological order, on all these below, plus Kiwis at O-Ringen 2018, and a […]

May has seen an upsurge in events both domestically and overseas. At international level we have seen the first round of the 2018 World Cup, in association with the European Championships, with mixed results for the small New Zealand contingent. At home the second round of JWOC trials, early in the month, including the Ultralong […]

The provisional New Zealand Team to compete at the World Orienteering Championships 2018 to be held in Riga and Sigulda, Latvia from 3-11 August 2018.   Men : Gene Beveridge (NW) Cameron de l’Isle (NW) Matt Ogden (NW) Tim Robertson (OHV) Toby Scott (AK)   Women : Lizzie Ingham (WN) Kate Morrison (HB) Laura Robertson […]

Although the early part of March kept many of riveted watching the unfolding drama of Godzone2018, there has been very little orienteering activity until the ONZ Championships over Easter. With Easter overhanging March into April, I have left this issue until completion of competition and selection or partial selection of JWOC, WOC and WUOC teams, […]

The World Orienteering Championships 2018 will be held in Riga and Sigulda, Latvia from 3-11 August 2018. Selection Criteria As per the Orienteering NZ G1 Selection Policy and in particular the 2018 WOC Team will be selected on the basis of known form and the results of the selection trial. Known form will include results […]

Trials for the New Zealand teams for both the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) 2018 and the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) 2018 will be held at the 2018 ONZ Championships, 30 March – 1 April 2018.

Applications are now being sought for the Team Manager roles for WOC and JWOC 2018 and 2019.  Team Managers provide an integral part to our travelling teams both pre-competition and during the competition itself so we are looking for someone who has the time to commit to the role hopefully for this 2-year period.

I apologise that with WOC already under way at the end of June, the June issue of HP News somewhat fell by the wayside. So here you have a combined June/July issue which not only summarises WOC with its highs and lows, but also JWOC which followed hard on its heels and saw Tommy Hayes […]

in this Issue: View from the Chair; ONZ Committee Vacancies – 10 August deadline; Junior Orienteering Camp – Applications Close 31 July; Coaching Positions for Junior Camp – Applications Close 31 July; High Performance Update;

Relay day at WOC2016 in Sweden was not particularly auspicious for NZL. However, it was nothing on relay day at WOC2017 in Estonia! Apart from Nick and Laura all the NZl team members either struggled or had disasters on the, admittedly, complex terrain. The day started badly whe  Gene dropped almost 6 minutes on the […]

Today’s middle distance on Elva-Vitipalu saw the most satisfactory NZL performance of the week so far. Nick, recovering from the disappointment of his unfortunate DSQ in the long distance ran a good solid race to finish 39th in 41:11 and was closely backed up by Gene only 29 seconds behind in 41st. Between them these […]

What was a good day at the WOC long distance for NZL was soured at the end when Nick, after an excellent first ever run at WOC, was disqualified for inadvertently trespassing into out of bounds on the short loop after the arena run through. Without this he would have registered an excellent 34th place […]

Having at last had the chance to walk around the sprint terrain in Tartu I completely agree with Tim’s comments that he posted on his blog regarding the courses from yesterday. To qualify – what a magnificant sprint area it was up on the hill: grassy slopes with a network of paths between statues, bridges, […]

Unfortunately WOC sprint final 2017 will not go down as a great day for NZ orienteering. Both Tim and Laura dropped time early on and Lizzie suffered a recurrence of the breathing problems have hindered her sprint performances in the past few years. The courses themselves were very atypical of what Kiwis probably expect of […]

Despite late changes to the courses, following today’s qualification heats, run in persistent rain on largely hilly parkland above the streets of the old town, three of the NZL team – Tim, Laura and Lizzie – will line up in the WOC sprint final early Sunday morning New Zealand time. The truth of rumours floating around […]

Two more days of light training and sampling of Estonian terrain of various types, and here we are on the eve of Sprint Qualification. Today’s model event (the model for all the sprints) suggested a terrain with as much grass as tarmac, not too many buildings, some steep slopes, and the cobbles of the old town […]

Tuesday morning in Tartu, Estonia and finally, with the 9.55pm flight from Helsinki and the 11.30pm bus from Tallinn delivering Ross and Nick, respectively, to the bosom of the team, all NZL team members have arrived for WOC2017. Sadly, the same cannot be said of Nick’s bag which seems to have been highjacked in Moscow. […]