First ever gold to New Zealand
Posted on | July 13, 2012 | Category: Arena
A big bunch of New Zealanders ran up to the podium on the flower and prize giving ceremony. Their team mate Matt Ogden had as the first from New Zealand won an international championship in orienteering.
A smiling and proud young man made the audience enthusiastic as well. He had done it. The 20-year-old athlete was not among the big favourites even if he was one of the best in the qualification and also has experience from senior World Championships last year.
“The tenth place I got on the sprint here in Košice was the best result before the middle final”, he says.
His race in the final was clean without mistakes.
Matt lives in Auckland and gives a big thanks to his coaches James Bradshaw and Ross Morrison for becoming so good. All three have been training together. For New Zealand it was probably just a question of time before they got a really great result because they have been working hard with the elite orienteers the last years.
In the women’s class, Tove Alexandersson lost 16 minutes on a control in the long final. “And the middle race wasn’t clean either. I missed in the beginning and was a bit stressed and didn’t have a good feeling”, she says. Still she was at the end the fastest of all, and grabbed her second gold this week.
Matt Ogden on the way to gold. Photo: Erik Borg
Matt Ogden and team mates on the podium. Photo: Erik Borg
The five best girls: Frida Sandberg, Sweden, Tove Alexandersson, Sweden, Sandrine Müller, Switzerland, Sara Hagström, Sweden, and Marte Narum, Norway. Photo: Erik Borg
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