Report: New Zealand Secondary Schools Orienteering Championships

During the Term 2 holidays, the School was well represented at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Orienteering and Rogaine Championships in Marlborough.

The event was held in steep terrain, which the School’s team doesn’t get much opportunity to compete on in Auckland. Despite this unfamiliarity, the team performed exceptionally well, winning two National Championship titles and earning a number of top 10 placings. 

In the Rogaine Championships, Form 5 students S. C. Randerson and C. P. Wagener won the New Zealand Secondary Schools Junior Boys race. In the three hours’ time allowed, over a course which included over 1,000m of vertical climb, the team ran to collect all but four of the 40 checkpoints on the map to win their class by 200 points.

The first day of the Orienteering Championships involved the Long Course event. The standout performances where from Form 3 students I. D. Stewart and D. D. Stewart who placed second and 10th respectively in the Junior Boys’ race, while Randerson and Wagener placed ninth and 10th in the Intermediate Boys’ event.

The Sprint Course on the second day of competition saw I. D. Stewart win the New Zealand Secondary Schools Junior Boys’ Orienteering Sprint Championship. He dominated from the start, setting the fastest time on 11 of the 16 legs to win by over a minute which backed up his second place in the long event, where he missed out on gold by 38 seconds. The relay competition was held on the final day in the Wither Hills Mountain Bike Park. The School fielded three teams, who all performed well to place fourth, sixth and ninth in competitive events.

Congratulations to the whole team for a strong collective performance that promises more in the years to come and to coaches M. Crosby and C. Porteous for their continued support of the squad.