Route to Christmas: Day 9 2013

Route to Christmas: Day 11 2013

Route to Christmas: Day 12 2013

Black is (still) THE color

Route to Christmas: Day 10 2013

Route to Christmas: Day 6 2013

TRRRaining

Route to Christmas: Day 8 2013

Route to Christmas: Day 7 2013

When the lights go out

Route to Christmas: Day 5 2013

Early bird EOC training camp

Forget the Cold

New PB 3000 m indoor 9:41,1

Rally from Taita Hills to the Independence Day Reception

Last Chance to Vote Lizzie

Right here right now
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Running Goat Pass

Standing at the base of the Deception River felt strange. Not 14 hours prior I had been in Whangarei, hurriedly packing. In the short period prior to arrival I had driven to Auckland, picked up a mate ...
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Forget the Cold

Although Winter does have its merits, for an orienteer being warm and not having to feel the ground slide from beneath your feet in every training is a smarter option! Ive had a couple of tough Winter ...
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Upcoming events

Winter is long gone. The days are getting longer, the trails are looking dryer and races are approaching. Over the next couple of months I am taking on a number of different races, most new, in my bui ...
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Hillary Trail – AR training

Auckland might be New Zealand’s largest city, a sprawling beast of over 1.2million people. It does however have more to offer to the off road athlete than your usual concrete jungle. Each point ...
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Kura Tawhiti

Orientation magnifique! Some times Nick Hann seems to inhabit a different plane than the rest of us
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World Cups and Oceania 2015

Book your leave now...you cant miss this. Here is the program There is a small group of kiwis attending the Australian training camp in Tasmania this summer (thanks big brother). And I must confess ...
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Plenty of New Squads in Aussie

Interesting reading from over the ditch...new squad and coaching structures on the way. Worth thinking about in our context of a long term defunct National Squad (sorry to inform you young people). A ...
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Canterbury Champs 2013

Just back from the Canterbury Champs 2013. A good hit out on great maps. Two of the maps from this years Nationals, Tuhaitara and Kura Tawhiti, re-emerged and were accompanied by an old favourite, th ...
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Wellington Champs: Hills, sprints and jungles.

A few weeks ago now I made the relatively short hop back over the ditch back to NZ for the Wellington Champs. It was a good excuse to get home and see family and friends, whilst stretching the legs ou ...
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Rock On

Im getting that great feeling one gets when there is a minter orienteering event coming up in the weekend. Canterbury Champs will be memorable this year with a terrific line up of maps and some good ...
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Wellington Champs Video

A mint little production initiated by Duncan Morrison and edited by Devon Beckman. Spot the old guy amongst the kids. Definite highlight is Matt Ogden in slowmo.
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Knock-out Sprint Video

Great video of the knockout sprint final race from the Wellington Champs in New Zealand. The video was edited by up and coming junior star Devon Beckman from my local club in NZ - HBOC - great work by ...
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Russell Forest

Godzone is fast approaching. The next few months are set to be a whirlwind of training and racing. Part of the training is to prepare the body for the endurance an expedition race requires. This weeke ...
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NZ MTBO Champs

The NZ MTBO Champs was held over the weekend in Nelson on the Codgers Mountain Bike Park. The champions were Patrick Higgins and Marquita Gelderman, with Chris Forne blowing a big lead by missing a c ...
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Waikawa

A little map geeking ahead of next years Nationals middle distance race...courtesy of Nick Hann
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Kayak Certificate

Learning my kayak in the Whangarei Harbour is one thing, but in order to take on Coast to Coast I needed to complete a grade 2 kayaking certificate. The process is to show I’m competent enou ...
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A Tough Middle Distance at Ruamahunga

And here is the elite womens middle distance from Wellington Champs. Sometimes you need to be able to follow a compass bearing mercilessly in rugged terrain...this was one of those times. Control 4 c ...
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Sprint Orienteering Lessons

Check out the sprint final map from last weekends knock out sprint at Rathkeale College. There were six in each final, thats two doing each loop, with each athlete doing the loops in different or ...
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Wellington Champs Review

Ill post some maps if I get a chance tomorrow, specifically to have a look at a few different legs, but firstly a great weekend of orienteering with a great variety of terrain and courses. It was go ...
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Read it and weep

Thinking about investing (spending) money on a garmin. I dont think there is another training tool out there and will give you the same ability to analyse your navigation and grow confidence in your ...
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Kayak – making progress

I’ve been in the boat for a few months now. The goal has been 3 sessions a week, trying to ramp up the amount of time I can spend in the boat and how well I can cope with waves. … ...
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Halcyon Days

For Jim Barr...landowner, controller, orienteer. Not from successful love alone,Nor wealth, nor honord middle age, nor victories of politics or war;But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions ...
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What to expect tomorrow in the Halcione fields

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Aus Champs Part III: Caught in the Middle

The final weekend of the Australian domestic season saw the running of the Middle distance and Relay championships, both on the granite covered, brand new, Gibralter Hill map. Having raced as a proud ...
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Halcione

Mattias Ogden set a course on Halcione and put it on facebook...how would you deal with each control... And yes the length of the course as advertised is a worry, particularly with the form of Ma ...
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Wellington Champs Accomodation

Wellington Champs Accomodation information at the Tararua Country Retreat. The website is here. There are still a few beds available if anyone is looking for last minute accomodation. And campers w ...
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Auckland Champs - Some Thoughts

(update: check the new link to Tane Cambridge DOMA for some Auckland Champs maps). I really meant to convince Chris or Matt to share some of their technical wisdom with us, on this one. It is hard t ...
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Auckland Champs Review

Georgia Whitla won the Auckland Champs middle distance last Saturday, but it would have been a hollow victory. The joy of orienteering comes from performance not results, and dropping 7 1/2 minutes t ...
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Auckland Champs Review

There will be an Auckland Champs review on the OSquad Blog, just excuse me while I gather my thoughts. Often orienteering is a good friend, but it still hurts when a good friend kicks you in the guts ...
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Australian Champs 2013 – Long

1:15000, plenty of rocks, 15km and a big elite field. The Aus Champs long was set to be a big day in the forest. The area chosen was allegedly a mix of farmland, broad gully spur and rocky tops. Typic ...
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A Quick Exercise

I will hopefully do a final preview of the Auckland Champs once start lists are out, but we are on the road to Auckland as of early this morning, so it may be difficult. Here is a technical exercise ...
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Two Horse Race

Some interesting results coming through from the weekend, especially from Whangarei where Nick Hann and Matt Ogden had a butting of heads in the Akld double OY....and one former junior world champion ...
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Orienteering on Woodhill (a rough "how to")

The attention of the NZ orienteering world now switches to the 2013 Super Series and first up the Auckland Champs this weekend. to be held on Woodhill and somewhere out east for the sprint distance. ...
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Contributions Welcome

Hey all, there has been a bit of a break for the OSquad Blog over the last week or so after the enjoyment of following the Australian carnival from a distance day after rainy day (the break also coin ...
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Aus Champs Part II: Back to School

With the Australian Champs run over two consecutive weekends, the days between are traditionally used to hold the Australian Schools Champs. Teams compete from almost all of the Australian States and ...
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World Cup 2015 Tasmania Training Camp

Hey Crew! Yep, it turns out that people other than Jamie can still post here (so if you want to help him keep the blog up to date, just drop him a line!) Orienteering Australia is holding an elite tr ...
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Australian Champs 2013 – Sprint

A delayed flight from New Zealand led to a late night/early morning arrival in Canberra. Greta, Anna and I made up for the 2.30am arrival with a decent sleep in before the first race of the Australian ...
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Aus Champs Part One: the Long and Short of it.

Last weekend the ACT played host to the Australian Long and Sprint distance orienteering champs. The races were my first since WOC over two months ago, and I was stoked to even make it to the start li ...
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Australian Champs; National League Final and NZ-AUS test matc...

The next two weekends see the running of the Australian Champs in and around the ACT. As a current local of the ACT, Ive been looking forward to the events for over a year. The areas offered look to b ...
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Whangarei Half Marathon

Took on another local race today, the ACC Active Smart Whangarei Half Marathon. Interestingly was my first onroad half marathon, so a chance to lay down a certain pb. Honour was also on the line takin ...
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A new riding location for Auckland

Woodhill, Riverhead, Hunua, Whitford – all riding locations on the Auckland fringe. All have a good variety of trails, tracks and forest roads. The limiting factor of all however is size. Hu ...
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Lazy bum

Injury can be a pain in the butt.Returning to the cold Canberran winter following WOC, I was looking forward to a bit of downtime from training and orienteering. Perhaps even focusing a bit more on th ...
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Chur Bro!

Youll read a fair bit on this blog and others about the commitment, sacrifices, and general stubbornness that it takes to (try and) be a top level athlete. It also requires one heck of a lot of suppor ...
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Training Techniques

Looks like Jamies spilled the beans and let my secret training technique out! Might have to upgrade to something faster to stay ahead of the competition now!
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Post WOC 2013: Back to Reality

It’s been over a week now since I crossed the finish line of the final race at WOC. A week to reflect on and analyse the races, what went well and what went wrong. A week to recover from the men ...
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O-no! last (real) WOC

A lot of things have to come together to perform well at WOC, and after 8 years I have yet to get everything right. I think I have managed to slowly make progress with my orienteering over the years, ...
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WOC: Half Time Report

2 distances down 2 to go; weve reached the half way point here at WOC. And as with last year Ive had contrasting experiences in the Long and Sprint distances. Therell be a full debrief once Im back ho ...
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WOC 2013; A beginner's viewing guide

Tomorrow sees the 2013 World Orienteering Champs kick off, with the long distance qualification being held in forest near Sotkamo, Finland. Our sport is becoming easier to follow globally each year, a ...
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Finding our Finnish Flow. And Flies, Lots of Flies.

The majority of the NZ team has been based near Vuokatti for almost a week now, training and acclimatizing prior to the World Champs, which begins this Sunday.Two of the big disadvantages of being bas ...
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