THE STORY

We’re Jenna (15) and Will (13) Tidswell and our sport is orienteering. Both of us have been orienteering since 2010 when our Haumoana School teacher introduced us to the sport. We train mentally and physically for orienteering, and we set goals that we work hard to achieve. We develop training plans and run together, working on keeping our fitness high, and improving our orienteering skills and techniques. We analyse terrains we’re going to run in as well as critiquing our previous runs at competitions.

We’re friends!  We’ve been involved in lots of other sports where our fitness and speed have given us an advantage but it’s orienteering we want to pursue.
We’re both members of the Hawke’s Bay Orienteering Club and volunteer to plan and set events for the club. We’ve got lots of young members in our club and we are happy to talk with them about the sport and how to improve, and this year we’ve been helping our school set training events, and I expect we will get into more coaching. We’ve received excellent coaching support and advice from our club. We’ve also played football since we were young and for the last two years have been volunteer coaches for the season for our Haumoana Football Club U7s and U8s.

SPORTING HIGHLIGHTS

Jenna

2015
Oceania Champs, Tasmania – Secondary Schools – Junior Girls– Long 3rd, Relay 1st
NZ Nationals – W16 – Sprint 2nd, Long 3rd
World Schools Orienteering Champs, Antalya, Turkey – Junior Girls – Long 1st , Middle 6th, plus Havelock North High School Junior Girls won the World Schools Orienteering Junior Girls Champs plus the NZ delegation won the Fair Play Trophy
NZSS Orienteering Champs – Intermediate Girls – Long 1st
Selected for NZ Team – Junior Girls for Australian Champs 2015, Victoria
Australian Champs, Ballarat – Sprint 2nd
Australia/NZ Schools Champs – Junior Girls Sprint 1st, Long 2nd, Relay 1st

2016
NISS Orienteering Champs – Intermediate Girls Sprint 2nd, Senior Girls Long 2nd
NZSS Orienteering Champs – Intermediate Girls Sprint 1st, Long 1st
NZ Nationals Sprint 2nd
Selected for NZ Team – Senior Girls for Australian Champs 2016, Queensland

Will

2015
Hawke’s Bay Orienteering Champs – Year 7/8 – Sprint 1st, Long 1st, Relay 1st
NISS Orienteering Champs – Year 7/8 – Sprint 1st, Long 1st
NZSS Orienteering Champs – Year 7/8 – Sprint 1st, Long 1st
NZ National Orienteering Champs – M14 – Sprint 3rd, Middle 3rd, Long 3rd

2016
Hawke’s Bay Orienteering Champs – Junior Boys – Sprint 1st, Long 1st, Relay 1st
NISS Orienteering Champs – Junior Boys – Sprint 1st, Long 1st
NZSS Orienteering Champs – Junior Boys – Sprint 1st, Long 1st
NZ National Orienteering Champs – M14 – Sprint 1st, Middle 2nd, Long 2nd
Selected for NZ Team – Junior Boys for Australian Champs 2016, Queensland

Our goal is to continue to train physically and mentally to be selected to represent NZ in future NZ Schools Teams for Australia and also in the NZ Team to go to JWOC (Junior World Orienteering Champs)

WHAT IS THE FUNDING FOR?

We’ve both been selected for the NZ Schools Orienteering Team to compete against the Australian States Teams for the Southern Cross Challenge as part of the Australian Orienteering Championships 2016, 24 Sep – 2 Oct. The 2016 Champs is being held in Queensland, Australia and we’re looking for funding for travel and accommodation for this trip. Also we’re planning to attend the NZ Junior Orienteering Camp in Christchurch in December which we also need funding for. This is in preparation for the Oceania Champs being held in April 2017. The cost of the Southern Cross Challenge is approx. $2800 each and the cost of the NZ Junior O Camp is $600 each (including travel and accommodation). Total cost for the two of us for both is $6800.

We have to travel throughout NZ to get to National-level competitions to race against our competitors on different terrains. This year already we’ve been on away trips to Auckland, Levin, Wellington, Nelson, Palmerston North, and Cambridge. We know that the events at the next level are stretching our family finances.