With the World Champs in Sprint Orienteering just round the corner, NZ's 8-strong team includes two OHV members, a Lower Hutt resident, and a former Wellingtonian! (Tim and Laura Robertson, Lizzie Ingham and Joe Lynch; with team officials Magnus Bengtsson and Malcolm Ingham!) It's interesting to reflect on the development of the sprint format in NZ, in particular the role of O-Max which we kicked off last century before there was even a NZ championship. Or a world championship, which didn't start until 2001. 

Our early events took inspiration from the "Park World Tour" which was a private-enterprise series of park events in European capital cities and later China, sponsored by cellphone maker Ericsson. We thought, hey we can do this, what a great idea to make orientering visible and exciting; and we simply overlaid some bling onto beginner events in parks. Later OW came on board (with a bit of reluctance to some of the "tricks" used to provide challenge in familiar terrain:-)). And the rest is, well, history. See an early O-Max entry form here. And get ready to follow our sprinters in Edinburgh from Friday here.