Prospects for the 2003 Superseries

As seen after Round 2, going into the final round at Queens Birthday Weekend

The most significant and disappointing aspect is that neither of the top two men, who were level-pegging on the basis of best 5 out of 7, have entered. Both Rob Jessop (Auckland) and Carsten Jorgensen (PAPO/Denmark) have too many points to be caught even if another highly-placed orienteer was to win both the last two races. 7 out of 9 events will count in the final tally and Jessop is ahead by two points on this basis, so unless plans change he will win the handsome trophy crafted by National Squad coaches Wayne and Trish Aspin.

Jorgensen, who is a top cross-country and track athlete as well as Denmark's top orienteer, will be running a half-marathon instead. We don't know the reason for Jessop's absence; he is currently in South Australia for the inaugural trans-Tasman test match, and has been selected to represent NZ at the World Championships in August.

There will be a battle for third place, with Turangi Outdoor Instructor Darren Ashmore holding pole position. The 30-year-old has not been doing much running training, but his job has increased his endurance, and he has a very solid technical ability. His nearest rival is Helensville's Mark Lawson, who juggles a macadamia nut orchard with marine engineering and of course training for orienteering. Ashmore has a 1-point lead on total, but a 5-point margin when the lowest two scores are removed.

Others who could conceivably make third are surprise World Champs selection Chris Forne, from Christchurch; early superseries leader Jason Markham (Wellington but running for PAPO); Irish mens champion (as of 3 May) Bill Edwards who lives in Lower Hutt; and the up and coming James Bradshaw (Wellington) who will have just returned from his NZ senior debut at the test match in Australia.

In the womens category, the absence of Tania Robinson takes some of the pressure off leader Rachel Smith (Wellington/PAPO). She can be caught by NZ Classic-distance champion Penny Kane, but this would require Kane to win both days and Smith to earn less than 7 points; the depth of the womens field makes that extremely unlikely, unless the latter visits a wrong control or suffers an injury. So in contrast to the men where the recuperating Karl Dravitzki is the past winner, Smith will hold the trophy for the second year in a row. The 26-year-old has been selected for both the Test-Match and the World Champs teams.

Kane is a sure bet to pass Robinson for second place, who in turn has an almost impregnable barrier back to the bunch chasing for fourth, the top of which would need a double win to catch the world-ranked #69.

This bunch includes Lisa Frith, a physio student from Auckland and last year's Superseries runner-up; Lara Prince from the well-known Canterbury multisport family; Jenni Adams who gained years of valuable experience living in Uppsala, Sweden before returning to Christchurch; Rebecca Smith from Auckland who gained a career-best third place in the overly-long NZ Classic-distance Championship at Easter; and perhaps the most likely Magdalana Danielsson (no picture). The Swedish student who is studying at Victoria University stood out of the NZ classic and short championships to satisfy Swedish eligibility requirements, but won the NZ sprint-distance championship. Her performance in Saturday's sprint race may give her the jump on the rest.

For more information about the competitors, visit the competitor list.

With similar numbers from the Southerly Storm and Northern Knights, the Storm is likely to hang onto its lead in the team competition. But this round might be a chance for the Central Raiders to gain a "home team" advantage. It could possibly reach half the winner's score; and with some inward transfers before the next series should be able to challenge the other regions.

The variety of race formats during the weekend demonstrates the recent development of orienteering. Once every race was what is now called the "classic distance" in which the winner took about an hour and a half. The weekend has no classic races, nor even the 30-minute "short distance" which was the first variation introduced 15 years ago. Instead Saturday will be the "sprint distance" of about 15 minutes, where extremely high speeds can be run and a 5-second hesitation or choosing the wrong way round an obstacle can drop you a place. It will be run over two stages in Masterton's Queen Elizabeth Park.

Sunday will be a "long distance" race of about 150 minutes at Mauriceville West, about 20km from Masterton. The terrain is hilly farmland with patches of bush and a pine forest. Unusually for orienteering, competitors will all start at the same time, but a system of loops which are run in various orders means that following the opposition is not possible; except that the last loop is sometimes common! Following these two superseries events (in which other age classes will be competing too), a brand-new event for pairs will be run on the Sunday, which will require navigating both individually and together. Eventually, this format may find its way into the Superseries too!