Hoping to navigate to top, have fun on way
Fiordland College students and Southern Orienteering Club members Ianthe MacMillan Armstrong and Jemima Hoskin will compete against other teenagers in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Orienteering Championships.
Fiordland College deputy principal and New Zealand orienteering coach Shaun Cantwell said the girls had already proven how talented they were by how well they had done in regional competitions, so doing the national schools contest was mainly about having fun.
"They're very sensible, mature young people who have coped well with competitions.
"They're both very smart, which you have to be to a degree for orienteering because you're making a lot of decisions, and solving problems effectively, which is what the navigation is.
"They are going up this weekend to just enjoy themselves."
Both students were part of the Fiordland College team which took out the national Get2Go championship held in Tongariro National Park last year.
The duo had already earned their spots on the New Zealand Secondary Schools Orienteering Team heading to the Southern Cross Challenge held in Queensland, Australia, in September and October.
The orienteering clash pits Australian and New Zealand secondary school students against each other in order to win the Southern Cross Trophy.
The event runs for 10 days.
Mr Cantwell said the girls, along with their team-mate Victoria Underwood from Wakatipu High School, were expected to perform well at the Southern Cross Challenge.
"They lift themselves to the competition [and] if they got nervous — it wouldn't overwhelm them as they would work well under pressure.
"They're quite well adjusted."
Last year was the first time students from the Southern Orienteering Club had represented New Zealand at the Southern Cross Challenge since 1998.
Club committee member Sally Duston said she was very excited about having three members of the club go to Australia.
"To have these three talented girls competing in this multi-day competition is awesome and a great inspiration to all our Southern Orienteering Club members, especially the young students."
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