Over the next few days the four members of the NZ Orienteering World Games team will beginning heading to the other side of the planet, but its not the usual destination, but rather the new world. Cali, Colombia will host the 2013 World Games. The usual flight hubs of Singapore/Bangkok/Frankfurt will be exchanged for exotic cities like Santiago/Lima/Bogota and the most commonly heard greeting will be hola!
Its an experienced team we are sending with the average age of the team well over 30. In one way or another they will all be coming out of the wilderness: Georgia Whitla from the wilderness of earthquake struck Christchurch, which as an engineer she is helping to reconstruct: Tane Cambridge from the wilderness of European orienteering where he has been occasionally lost: Rachel Smith from the wilderness of Motherhood and Chris Forne, well that man is always in the wilderness, he is following the World Games with the Eco-Motion adventure race in Brazil with his World Champion Adventure Racing team Seagate.
I took the liberty of asking the team members a few short questions, primarily to assess their state of mind. They did not know they were part of an elaborate pyschological experiment, which as always Chris came out on top of. Straight is of course great.
T. Right, all the best in the world hold it in their right hand,
Simone Niggli, Carsten, Ross... me... (Compass that is, in case you
were wondering)
G.Right, always right.
C. Straight is great!
R. Left
There is some excellent previews of the World Games on the World of O. Good luck to our team. My pick for particular excellence 1. The relay team, a consistent performance could see us high up the rankings 2. Tane Cambridge, a beautiful controlled race is just waiting to happen for Tane, now that the rough edges have been sanded off by Europe again. Kia kaha.
Its an experienced team we are sending with the average age of the team well over 30. In one way or another they will all be coming out of the wilderness: Georgia Whitla from the wilderness of earthquake struck Christchurch, which as an engineer she is helping to reconstruct: Tane Cambridge from the wilderness of European orienteering where he has been occasionally lost: Rachel Smith from the wilderness of Motherhood and Chris Forne, well that man is always in the wilderness, he is following the World Games with the Eco-Motion adventure race in Brazil with his World Champion Adventure Racing team Seagate.
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| Georgia - On the Road |
1. Are you scared about going to Colombia? If not, why not?
T. Yes, a little bit.
G. No, everyone tells me that as soon as you arrive any security concerns you have will go right out the window. Plus I heard a good story yesterday from a friend who managed to fend off armed drug lords in Colombia with a small bag of chocolates. What is there to be scared about?
C. Yip, but hopefully it should be fun.
R. I am a little apprehensive of travelling to an unknown country with such a tumultuous history. However we have been assured that excellent and adequate security will be in place, so perhaps my biggest issue is the Colombian thorny bamboo and learning the salsa!
G. No, everyone tells me that as soon as you arrive any security concerns you have will go right out the window. Plus I heard a good story yesterday from a friend who managed to fend off armed drug lords in Colombia with a small bag of chocolates. What is there to be scared about?
C. Yip, but hopefully it should be fun.
R. I am a little apprehensive of travelling to an unknown country with such a tumultuous history. However we have been assured that excellent and adequate security will be in place, so perhaps my biggest issue is the Colombian thorny bamboo and learning the salsa!
2. What special item are you taking with you that will be to your advantage?
T. Some of the CQB stuff Brent taught me.
G. My Equatorial Compass. Northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere ones will just go round and round and round and round. It will be chaos.
C. Inov8 X-talons
R. At this stage my vitamin c - hopefully help me get better.
3. Left or right?
T. Right, all the best in the world hold it in their right hand,
Simone Niggli, Carsten, Ross... me... (Compass that is, in case you
were wondering)
G.Right, always right.
C. Straight is great!
R. Left
There is some excellent previews of the World Games on the World of O. Good luck to our team. My pick for particular excellence 1. The relay team, a consistent performance could see us high up the rankings 2. Tane Cambridge, a beautiful controlled race is just waiting to happen for Tane, now that the rough edges have been sanded off by Europe again. Kia kaha.
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