Oceania Orienteering Championships

A record number of entries have been received for the 4th Oceania Orienteering Championships, to be held in the South Island of New Zealand from the 3rd to the 7th of January, 2009.

Over a quarter of the 600 entrants are from Australia, Austria, Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, New Caledonia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.

Oceania Orienteering titles are on offer for Sprint, Middle and Long distances, as well as for Relay teams. The week long series of races commences with warmup races in Nelson and Blenheim, followed by the Sprint at Lincoln University, the Relay at Kairaki Beach (Kaiapoi/Woodend), the Long at Craigieburn and the Middle at Duntroon (Oamuru).

Further races will follow at Naseby, including the Australia-New Zealand Schools Challenge.

The Australians are also sending a team to contest the Australia-New Zealand Elite Test Match, and the ANZ Challenge for all age-classes.

While New Zealand hopes to hold a home terrain advantage, The Australians will be counting on the inclusion of elite rising star Simon Uppill - current Australian champion over all three distances - to neutralise New Zealand's home advantage.

New Zealand's team includes the vastly experienced internationals Darren Ashmore and Tania Robinson, who have attended 5 and 11 World Championships, and hold 6 and 19 NZ National titles, respectively.