New Zealand Orienteering Championships

Longtime top New Zealand orienteer Tania Robinson – now making a comeback after “retiring” injured 18 months ago – is expecting a tough battle in Easter’s national championships.….and she couldn’t be happier about it!

The 35-year-old Henderson graphic artist, winner of 19 national elite titles and a regular NZ rep at world championships since she was 16, says she’s recovered from the Achilles tendon injury that forced her to stop competing – and is now in the best shape of her life.

But, she says, she needs to be – if she’s to beat rapidly rising star Lizzie Ingham, the 20-year-old Wellington university student who was NZ’s standout performer in January’s Oceania Orienteering Championship.

While Robinson showed she was on the way back to top form in the Oceania contest, Ingham stole the show – taking the Oceania sprint title and first resident honours in the middle-distance and long-distance races, hoisting herself to current Kiwi No. 1 status.

In Easter’s three days of individual competition around Auckland, the competition between Robinson and Ingham holds the promise of a head-to-head battle…and Robinson is relishing the prospect: Too often in the past, she explains, she hasn’t had to peak for the nationals – because there simply wasn’t enough competition to threaten her place in the NZ team to the world championships.

This time though she expects a big challenge – from Ingham and, in the sprint race in particular, also from a group of other young up-and-coming women orienteers: “I hope they kick my butt….but I will give them a good run for their money,” says Robinson.

“It’s awesome having these girls come through. It’s been a real motivator. I’ve got good competition – and that’s what I’ve been waiting for, for ages.”

Robinson says that her aim is clearcut: “I want to win. I never want to come anywhere but first.”

Ingham says she’d “like to be in the top two in all the races” – picking Robinson as “the main opposition” in the championship’s middle-distance and long-distance races.

But in Good Friday’s sprint race – to be staged in the grounds of the University of Auckland’s Epsom campus – she’s expecting “the younger elites” to be setting the pace.

That group is led by the talented Amber Morrison. A NZ junior rep in 2006 and winner of an elite women’s NZ title in ’07, the Hawke’s Bay orienteer is now studying in Auckland….and regularly trains with Robinson.

The likely front-running group also includes 2005 NZ junior rep Rita Homes (Hawke’s Bay) and members of this year’s NZ team to the junior world championships in Italy in July – Angela Simpson (Rotorua) and Greta Knarston (Counties Manukau).

Interestingly, neither Robinson nor Ingham are primarily aiming for selection in the NZ team to the world orienteering championships….preferring to compete instead in July’s World Games in Chinese Taipei.

Ingham, who capped her four junior world championship performances with a 15th place last year, says that “having been overseas for the last five winters, I thought I’d give it a bit of a break this year.

“I do have my name down for world champs selection, but I think I’ll withdraw before the nationals. I’d really love to go to the World Games.

“I’ve got over 10 years of world champs ahead of me – so there’s no need to rush in. I don’t want to burn out.” She wants to “make sure I’m fully prepared before I go.”

Ingham, now doing honours in physics at Victoria University, credits a “more relaxed approach” for her international breakthrough performance in the Oceania championships: “The best thing is to not worry about the competition really.

“It’s your own race – it’s just you and the map. So worrying about anyone else is just going to slow you down or make mistakes more likely.”

After her Oceania title win, she reckons, “I was surprised more than anything.

“There’s a whole group of us who are really close at the moment and any one of us could have won any of those races. Tania was 1s behind me in the middle-distance event. That’s just pausing to look at your map!”

Robinson also believes that her younger rivals may be at their best in the sprint: “Oh man, it’s anyone’s race. You’ve got a bunch of maybe six girls in with a chance of taking it out. Just one slipup and it’s gone. It’s going to be down to who makes the least mistakes.

“I love the sprint – I reckon it’s really exciting.” Speed training has improved her running pace and she is not conceding anything to her younger rivals: “I’ll give them a run for their money still I think – running-wise. It’ll just be a matter of whether my orienteering is playing the game.”

Robinson says that she hasn’t yet decided whether to go for a place on the world championship team or to concentrate entirely on the two-woman World Games team.

Other likely front-running contenders for the women’s national titles include Gisborne’s five-time NZ champ Penny Kane (also in good form in the Oceania series), multiple title runner-up Rebecca Smith (Rotorua) and Christchurch orienteers Jenni Adams and Lara Prince – the latter another who ran well in the Oceania contest.

WHAT? NZ Orienteering Championships

WHEN & WHERE?

Sprint: 2pm, Good Friday (April 10), Epsom College of Education

Middle-Distance: 11am Easter Saturday (April 11), Woodhill Forest

Long-Distance: 11am Sunday (April 12), Woodhill Forest

Relays: 10am Easter Monday (April 13), Woodhill Forest