Part 1 New Zealand.

It all started when I got selected to run for Ireland in the World Mountain Running champs in Borneo. I got to thinking (a dangerous thing for me) Borneo is more than half way to N.Z. I've not been there and the World Masters is there in January, only problem was the mountain trophy was in September, so what would I do in the meantime? "Get fitter" I thought so off I went and did badly in the mountain running AGAIN !! .By the time I had got to N.Z. my running was much better but my "O" was not so good so I entered as many events as I could and steadily got used to the terrain and the mapping. By the end of December the elites here were finding it hard to beat me on their home turf. So things were looking good for the Masters.

Auckland, warm up event 1

A very fast sand dune area with complex contour detail and some coastal dunes and thick green.(almost all dunes areas in N.Z. are forested). Things were going well until a 4 minute error that I expected to drop me down the field, but I found out the next day I had won (by 30 secs!!!) from Jens Kristian Kopland of Modum in Norway. Obviously others were making mistakes too.

Public event 1(warm up event for W.M.O.C.)

Another very fast dunes area, with patches of green between the coastal dunes and the rest of the forest. Since Auckland I had got a chest cold, so I decided to run at medium pace and concentrate on good navigation and I was 15 seconds behind the winner!!! Was everyone else easing back as well? I didn't know.

Day 1 Qualification.

The times for day one and day two would be added together, so that the slowest person would go first right down to the fastest person last.(two separate heats on very similar courses) Trying to be near the back was important, as that is where all the fast boys, and girls, would be. At World Champs and World Cups all the top orienteers try to be last out , 'cause if they catch anyone ahead they tend to run quicker and therfore do better overall.

Day one was quite rough with brashings and bracken, which brought speed down to 6 min per km!!!

I was running in Qualification Race 1 (Q1) with loads of Scandinavians and a few ex-British team members like Martin Bagness, while in Q2 there were the usual Scandies including none other than many-times-world-gold-medallist "Mr Orienteering" Jorgen Martensson.

I ran well for the first 2/3 then I was very slow making my mind up on a very long leg and then made a 2 minute error in the circle and compounded it with another one two controls later. I finished thinking I had run fast but sloppy - but not that sloppy because to my suprise I won by a minute or so!! Now the pressure was on , I was the favourite in Q1. As for Q2 Jorgen destroyed the field, 4 1/2 mins faster than anyone in his heat and 11 mins quicker than me: it seemed the quality runners were in Q2.

Day 2 Qualification.

Very fast sub 5 min per km in large parts with some nasty coastal stuff. The pressure must have got to me 'cause I missed no 2, 3, 4 and 6 and was lying about 32nd and four mins down (they had electronic punching). This was serious, I had to gain time.Thankfully as some of you might know I'm pretty fit by orienteering standards, so I can almost always turn up the wick, so turn it up I did. It was a bit of a gamble but I felt starting with 20 or 30 people behind me was not a good place to be.

Going faster seemed to make me concentrate better and I was spiking every control, running full speed through the circle. On a short 200 - 300 metre leg near the finish I took 30 secs out of the entire field including Jorgen and then 8 secs out of all on the 150 metre run in, to win by 3/4 of a minute. The second part of this event was I feel the best I've ever orienteered.

This meant that I would start second last with only Jorgen behind me.

Final M40

With 92 people in our course I thought elephant tracks would play a big part, but they didn't. I took number 1 slow to be sure and got caught in some green to 2 then went off line to 3. As I left 3 heard a branch break behind me: it could only be Joggy. I picked up the pace and went well until a mistake on 7 let him through, but I got back ahead on the way to 9 and took 30 seconds out of him only to make a small route choice error which let him catch me then pass me by 11. He stayed ahead to14 then I once more took the lead only to be passed again at 16. I summoned all my fitness from 18 and stayed ahead to the finish 4 legs later, but only got 17 seconds on him. In the heated race we collected the guy who started 4 mins up on me and I was 4 1/4 mins faster than all but one, Jorgen being 5 3/4 faster than all but one.

This was the best race I've ever been in and at the finish Jorgen complimented me on my orienteering and said he just needed to not let me get too far ahead, high praise from the Master of Masters.

Hopefully I'll have more good news in part Two - Auzzie.

RESULTS for M40 Class WMOC2000 - Final Jan 7 2000

1. Martensson Jorgen SWE 0:59:37

3. Kinnunen Esa FIN 1:05:32

7. Bagness Martin GBR 1:09:54

12 Watkins Tim GBR 1:17:43

18 Saunders Mark GBR 1:21:52