Course planner Sue Scott reports...
The second Taranaki Secondary School Rogaine Champs attracted an amazing 120
students to the 3hr evening event at Lake Mangamahoe. Competing in teams, and the
thrill of night navigation, are evidently a turn-on, with Orienteering Taranaki
member Nick Collins describing short rogaines as "the new face of orienteering!"
The scenic reserve just outside New Plymouth has a network of tracks, a fair bit of up and down, and an area of just 3.5 sq.km. Yet even the NZ Veteran Rogaine Champion team of Collins and Don Paterson couldn't clean all the controls in 3 hours. All clubs have areas like this close to town; it doesn't matter whether they are forest or farmland; and of course they can be run in urban areas themselves.
Course planner Sue Scott reports...
This was the second year of holding the TSSA Rogaine champs in Taranaki and the surge in interest was huge - from roughly 50 entrants in 2005 the numbers increased to over 120 secondary school students this year. Most secondary schools in Taranaki were represented in what was a hugely fun and competitive night for all.
The event, a 3 hour rogaine, commenced at 6:00pm which gives a 2/1 daylight/dark split. It was run on a simplified orienteering map, (basically converted to MTBO standard with a bit of extra vegetation detail), at a scale of 1:15,000 with 5 meter contour intervals. Approximately 35% of the total event points were set on or close to a two hour walking track, (30 minute run), around Lake Mangamahoe. This was done as an attempt to enable the less experienced/first time navigators/rogainers a shot at getting a moderate score.
A big thanks to NavLight creator Pete Squires for the use of his electronic punching
system (looks like a wristwatch, left) for this event. The NavLight has been used in the
past two NZ National Rogaining Champs, and is to be used in the coming Australian and
World Rogaine Champs events later this year - a tribute to the work Pete has put into this
system. The NavLight system makes it easy for competitors to record controls and for
organisers to sort out results. (Apart from the odd hiccup - we'll
only allow pre-entry next time to avoid time-consuming updating on the day.)
On the night a happier group of teenagers you couldn’t find. Let loose with
torches in blackberry and gorse covered pine forest doesn’t seem like the ideal
event - but all those returning seemed to have something good to say. Even the team
which was so late back that they lost all their points in time penalties could see
the amusing side of things.
We recommend giving it a go in your area. Controller Rob Newbrook and I are happy to pass on what we can about events like this, so or have a chat at an event round the country.