Tasman orienteering star loving southern shift

Former Motueka High School adventure racing star Tide Fa’avae will return to the national orienteering stage next week from a new base.

The 18-year-old has relocated to Queenstown with her family for the year, and can’t wait to put her fresh training regime to the test at the New Zealand Orienteering Championships in North Canterbury over Easter.

“You come to Queenstown to get fit. There are hills and trails everywhere,” she enthuses after an early morning training run before heading to her job at Torpedo7.

Destination Queenstown should snap her up as an ambassador.

It is an ideal location to prepare for the mountainous terrain near the Dolomite Ranges at the Junior World Orienteering Champs in Italy in June and July.

Now Tide is back on track for those with the help of her legendary father Nathan’s new training programme after a shaky start to the year.

“I had returned from a family holiday at Lake Tahoe in California and did really badly at the Oceania Champs in January,” she confirms.

But the tough judge bounced back to win long distance event at South Island Champs which was the last qualifying opportunity to confirm her place in the New Zealand team. She was also runner-up in the middle-distance event and third in the sprint.

Tide has unfinished business at the JWOC after being disqualified for mispunching at last year in Czechia.

That is a technical term for not visiting the controls, on the course, in the correct order.

“I thought I was going really well before that happened,” she reflects. After negotiating the national champs, she has a warm-up race in Italy ahead of the worlds.

Next week, she will catch up with her older brother Zefa who finished second at the Junior World Champs last year and has now stepped up to the senior ranks.

The pair will combine to race in the relay in North Canterbury. The 20-year-old has moved to Christchurch and is mixing orienteering with studying for a Bachelor of Digital Screens degree at Canterbury University.

Unlike his sister, he breezed through qualifying with dual victories at the Oceania Champs to clinch his selection for the senior worlds in Finland in July.

The Nelson Orienteering Club member spent half of last year competing in Europe, including Finland.

Zefa will also have a world cup event and two warm-up races, one of them in Finland, ahead of the worlds.

“The senior competition is much tougher, so my main goal is to try and qualify for the middle distance final,” says Zefa, who’s been enjoying running on the Port Hills.