World Masters Games - Auckland, New Zealand - April 2017
28,000 competitors from 106 countries. 28 sports in 48 venues over a 10-day period.
This is the World’s largest multi-sport event held every 4 years and this year it was awarded to Auckland so Hilary and I decided to participate and enjoy a retirement holiday before the event.
Events included Water polo, Surf life-saving, Rugby and Netball as well as 16 core sports from Archery to Triathlon but only 2 were World Championships, Weightlifting and Orienteering.
The games began with an opening Ceremony in Eden Park, the home of the All Blacks rugby team, by the New Zealand Prime Minister. All the competitors paraded around the stadium behind their sports banner accompanied by the biggest laser light show seen in NZ and loud music. Most of the competitors, who have to be over the age of 35 enjoyed it, the adrenalin was already flowing as it felt good to be with so many fellow sports enthusiasts, the oldest being 101 competing in 100 m sprint and javelin. It felt like we were actually in the Olympics although many of the competitors were there to enjoy their sports and not worry about the results.
After coming down from this high we had a sprint model event the next day around a local university which was a pleasant stretch of the legs as we had only done a little running training in the past 8 weeks of our holiday but lots of walking which did seem to help on the high sand dunes in the long distance. We read in the programme that you were allowed to walk around the sprint areas that were going to be used for the next 2 days although you were not allowed to take old maps to look at. We thought it might be worth a little look and so walked slowly around them. We did notice people using maps but I don’t think it helped them or us as the areas were quite complicated and planners blocked some areas of access to make the courses very varied and interesting.
Sprint Qualification 1744 orienteers in 23 classes from 40 different countries made this the biggest O event ever held in NZ and there was a real buzz around the assembly area. I have never seen so many coffee vans at an event with such long queues, all possibly looking for the Mo Farah Fix to run faster. Maybe that was why there was such a buzz! My class (M60) had 139 entries split into two groups. Call up was 6 mins’ pre-start with complete silence as you moved through the boxes, quite eerie as so many others around you were trying to stay warm and focused for the start. I didn’t manage to do that as after picking up the map I found it very confusing trying to pick routes but I was not alone as 13 orienteers in my 2 classes got DSF for miss-punching.
After hesitation in finding No 1 I stood for a long time trying to work out how on earth I was going to go to number 2. After working a route out around the small passages to the east of the direct route I ran too hard and got to the control without my brain working. Then I ran around for a few minutes until I stopped, recovered and told myself I was in an Orienteering World Champs and I was supposed to go to the controls in order, not run around like a headless Emu. Luckily, I was standing by control 5 so worked out what to do. Control 5 is about 80 mts from the previous control 2 I had punched and it had taken me 4 mins to get there Daft or what! After that I settled down and had a good run even picking up the 3rd best time on 10-11 by going through the large grey area which was a carpark where most people went north to the main road.
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One more mistake from 11-12 where I went to 13 first but luckily the control 113 was stuck in my brain and I realised the problem quickly. I finished 28th in class which qualified me for the A final. The longest qualifying time of the day was 106 minutes for a 1.5km course with many competitors saying the passage ways and steep steps were too small for 2-way traffic, but most people seemed to love the complexity of the area.
The last special control, a moa bird |
After the event, we decided to watch some of the other Masters events, Badminton where it looked like one of the male competitors had been training hard on the beer, but boy could he play well. Table Tennis and Volleyball where it was great to watch a good M65 continually throwing himself to the floor to save points and then having to stop for a quick puff of his inhaler. All these events had big crowds cheering on every point and the atmosphere was terrific. The events were very competitive but all played in a good spirit. We also watched some Archery and Lawn bowls and didn’t realise how fit you had to be to take part in the lawn bowls, 3 matches every day of 90 mins each for 6 days continuously before the final, if you lasted that long. Unfortunately, we missed the athletics where we had wanted to see the oldest competitors run. (Gold medal time in the W100+ 100 metres sprint was 74 seconds.)
Sprint Final 2.7km, 34m climb and 68 finalists in the A final. Very fast open running in the park to start followed by complicated university buildings and a tricky underpass section. The organisers had been thoughtful and closed the main road running north to south on the map so you could cross anywhere on your route. I was much better in the zone today and had an error free run and finished well pleased with a time of 19.56 in 31st position even managing to blank out the orienteering community gathered around the spectator controls of 14,15 and 16. You could tell it was fast and furious today as 12 runners on this course were DSF for mispunching. I even managed to win a split time leg on the final control. Hilary unfortunately was DSF for inadvertently running into a building which didn’t have any doors and being seen by a marshal but the tables would be turned in a couple of days’ time when I blew up and Hilary had a good run. |
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Long Distance Model We had been worried about the areas for the Long-distance courses, forest on an intricate and steep dune system. Having looked at an old map and courses we found it was a little easier than expected if you could keep contact with the map. The pre-run race notes stated ‘Competitors will have to keep their wits about them to ensure their speed and navigation adjusts and adapts with the terrain. Be warned Woodhill forest severely punishes those that don’t pay enough attention to their compass and while the beautiful forest often invites you to open the throttle, both the complex and the vague areas are lying in wait for those that don’t have their speed under control. It will be competitors that keep their heads and balance their technique who will come out on top’ I noted this on the first 2 days qualifying why did I not remember it on the Finals Day!
Long Qualification 1 The aim was to try to qualify for the A final so I decided to try to go a little slower and make sure that I picked safe routes and let others make mistakes. that would have been OK if I hadn’t made 3 mistakes which cost me 20 mins. Basic mistakes, one on a short leg 3-4 approx 80m took 3 mins as I ran without a plan and guessed it was over that way. Next 4-5, a route choice, I got stuck in the only grotty part of the forest and then a major 10 min error when I was thinking I was doing quite well between 7-8. I was still quite pleased when I finished but found I was very slow and ended 45th out of 68
Long Qualification 2 Knew I had to push myself today if I wanted to make the A final, picked up the map and saw it was a lot more complex than yesterdays with steeper sand dunes to climb. I ran the first 4 controls well picking good safe routes and thought no 5 was easier as just before a main track. Boom wrong! 6 min error. I had to go to the track to relocate and was with a group of about 7 people hunting for the control but they all went in different directions. It was the only time in 3 days I saw as many runners. The only other small error on no10 was when I lost concentration. Finished happy again in 59 mins with only approx. 7 mins’ errors, that should move me up the rankings. Wrong again! 45th again with the winner in 37 mins, therefore must be not fit enough even though it felt good running in soft sand.
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Finals Day - B final 5.3km 145m This is the only day that counts so need to make it good I say to myself. 1,2 ,3, 4 small wobble, 5,6,7 fine going well in 5th place overall and then the wheels come off! I have to relocate off track for no8, a 5 min error, try to go faster for 9 in a non-descript open area. Big mistake! No plan and rushing to catch time lost, have to relocate on the northern track, a 10 min error. I have a plan to no 10 but put off by someone stopping me and asking where we were, this is against the rules and gets in my mind and then I don’t know where I am or what I am doing. I make the map fit to what I want it to be and finally somehow get to 11 before 10. After the race, I try to reason what I did but I think I just had no brain activity using most of my oxygen to just run. Like all courses, I do I will finish if not injured so carry on. But, make another mistake 17 -18 finish in a time of 1hour 53 min but still come 50th from 65 starters. It was a more difficult day today with controls in darker forest and with rain on the glasses it didn’t help but not as difficult as a lady in Hilary’s class who was running 3.7km 100. She was fine up to control 7 and then the next control a leg of approx. 300 m she unfortunately took 5hour 2mins and 53 seconds but still managed to finish the course in 5hour 57 min to a good cheer possibly as the organisers didn’t have to arrange search parties. Hilary managed a very creditable 8th place out of 60. |
On to the party night and closing ceremony. Many athletes seemed to have medals as 21,000 were awarded. The 3,500 volunteers to help run the games were thanked numerous times and they helped to make the games a brilliant success. I looked up the winning times in athletics for M60 100m - 12.93 seconds, 1500m - 4.52 mins, 5000m - 17.31, 10k - 36.19. Too fast for me so now I am going to start training for the World Masters Games in 4 years’ time in Japan, sumo wrestling!
The next World Masters Orienteering Championships is in Copenhagen between the 7-13 July 2018.
I would thoroughly recommend it!
Kevin Pickering
Background image: Satellite view of part of North Island, New Zealand