Canterbury Champs 2023

PAPO will be hosting Canterbury Champs in the Craigeburn basin.
There will be 2 events events on the Hogsback and Castle Hill maps.

  • Saturday 14th October will feature a 3-person forest Relay on the Castle Hill Village map.
    The Canterbury Champs Relay will be one of the most exciting orienteering events this year, with great courses on one of the smallest and trickiest bits of forest we have mapped. The intricate detail of Castle Hill Forest will mean the battle for relay gold will be tight in every grade, and fastest might not always be the winner. 
  • Sunday 15th October will be a Long distance event on the Hogsback map.
    The Hogs Back map is a subalpine area with a mixture of mature beech forest and open tussock. The elevation ranges from 700m to 1200m above sea level. Large flat areas are dissected by steep valleys and ridges. The beech forest offers a range of runnability, from open mature forest with running speeds < 4min/km to extremely thick areas of regrowth. There are some isolated areas of limestone rock detail.

Start lists, Relay teams, Final information:

Saturday Relay final information

Please see this document for all information on the relay including relay teams.

Sunday Long distance final information

Parking: Texas Flat Car Park
Starts: From 10:30am, Course Closure: 2:30pm
Courses 1 to 5 and 7 Start 1 is ~800m and 200m Climb from parking, allow 10-20min
Courses 6 and 8 to 10 Start 2 is ~800m and 60m Climb from parking, allow 10-20min
Weather: Forecast is looking pretty terrible. Lots of Rain. Please pack a thermal top as we may require you to carry one. It might also be advisable to wear a rain jacket. It looks like we will need to have a gear return from the start too, this will be taken to the Caravan, by the results if you are looking for it afterwards.
River crossing: there is one point that crosses a small river on all courses that may turn into a bigger river on the day. We will monitor prior and during the race and at this stage will have a marshal at a crossing point for at least the White and Yellow Courses. You will receive further instructions prior to the start as to what we have decided based on the weather conditions.
Other notes: 
  • Tracks: there are some unmapped flagging and vague tracks in the terrain. These will not affect route choice, you may not even see them, but you should be aware there are some out there.
  • Trees: There are a number of new trees down in some areas (due to Snow and Wind). These again should not affect route choice, and there is always a way around them. Some of the more obvious ones around controls have been added to the map.
  • Steep Earth Banks: There are some very steep earth banks in some areas, some near control sites. It is safest to approach from the position of the control, don't try and go directly up or down them if unsafe, (you may have to deviate from the red line) in general check your descriptions. For example: "Earth Bank, at the Foot" - Approach from the foot or bottom.
  • Slippery ground: some of the snow grass in some areas will be slippery in the wet take extra care in these areas
  • Water and Radio Controls: There are water stops and Radio controls on most courses. No guarantees the radio controls will transmit back to the caravan but we did our best to add these in but not compromise the course design.

Courses/Classes

Course Distance Climb Number of Controls Start Classes
Course 1 10250 m 540 25 Controls S1 M21E
Course 2 7840 m 395 20 Controls S1
M20E, M21A, W21E
Course 3 6000 m 310 14 Controls S1 M40A, W20E
Course 4 4920 m 280 15 Controls S1
M16A, M50A, W21A, W40A
Course 5 4110 m 245 13 Controls S1
M60A, RecRM, W16A, W50A
Course 6 2800 m 125 10 Controls S2
M70A, M80, RecRS, W60A, W70A, W80A
Course 7 5000 m 170 13 Controls S1 M14A, W14A
Course 8 2970 m 180 12 Controls S2 RecO
Course 9 2610 m 120 13 Controls S2
M12A, RecY, W12A
Course 10 1750 m 65 11 Controls S2
M10A, RecW, W10A

Saturday Relay info:

A relay always has a fun and friendly atmosphere so everyone is welcome to run in a team regardless of your orienteering level or experience.
Each team has three runners who will be grouped by the Club Captain (and event planner), Briana Steven, in an effort to mix people up and create fair teams. Having the teams organised in advance also means no one is left on their own trying to make a team and hopefully no team is out for very long.

There will be 5 relays:

Long Red Male relay 3 equal legs.
~ 2.5km per leg
Aimed at Red Long runners and Red Medium wanting a longer course.
Long Red Female relay 3 equal legs.
~2.2km per leg
Short Red Female relay 3 equal legs.
~1.9km per leg
Aimed at Red Short runners and Red Medium wanting a shorter option.
The navigational difficulty will be the same as the Red Long relay. 
Short Red Female relay 3 equal legs.
~1.6km per leg
Mixed relay

Orange/White/Yellow
~1.0km per leg
(Mixed Gender)

One runner at each level, (mirroring the Mixed Short grade at Nationals Relays)

All relays will have a mass-start with the first leg runner starting around 1pm.

For those that really don't want to run in a relay team, there will be an option to run one of the relay leg courses when the relays are mostly complete. However we'd like as many people as possible to give running in a relay team a try in at this low-key event. Punch starts for individual runners will be sometime after 2.30pm (but please enter the relay instead!) 

For parents sharing childcare duties or needing to shadow kids on the White course, please let us know via the form below and we'll ensure you are setup so everyone gets a run.
Relay Request form. (please make all requests prior to entries closing on Mon 9th Oct).

Sunday Hogsback info:

Sunday's courses will be classic long distance orienteering with allocated start times from 10.30am.
Grades offered will be via age bracket with recreational courses available for those wanting an easier or shorter course than their usual age grade.   
See below for details of grades to be offered.

Entries:

Pre-entries are now closed. There will be a limited number of spare maps available for entry-on-the day in the recreational classes only.
Enter Here: https://entero.co.nz/evento.php?eventName=cc-2023
Standard price entries close Mon 2nd Oct.
Late entries close Mon 9th Oct.
All entries must be paid for using Credit Card payments in the entry system (EnterO). 
Any queries on the entry system, please email PAPOentries@gmail.com
If you need to change anything on your entry (SI number, grade entered, race withdrawal), please fill out this form prior to entries closing (Mon 9th Oct).

Event Fees:

Standard event fees

These are available to members of any orienteering club in the world.
These fees are available until Monday 2nd Oct.

  Relay - Sat 14th Oct Long - Sun 15th Oct
Senior $25.00 $30.00
Junior/Student $15.00 $20.00
Child under 12 $10.00 $10.00
* Family Maximum
(both races)
 $165.00

Non-Members: additional $10 Senior/$5 Junior per race.

* Family maximum for 2 Seniors and any number of Juniors normally resident at the same address.
For team entries, please create an individual entry for each team member. 
SI hire: Regular SI cards $3 per race.

Late entries:

For entries on/after Tuesday 4th Oct, a 50% late entry surcharge is applied. Late entries will be allocated a start time at the beginning of the start list, prior to all standard entries.
Final date for entry is Monday 9th Oct, no entries will be accepted after this date.

Late fees Relay - Sat 14th Oct Long- Sun 15th Oct
Senior $37.50 $45.00
Junior/Student $22.50 $30.00
Child under 12 $15.00 $15.00
Family Maximum
(both races)
 $247.50

All event fees are in NZ dollars and include GST.

Payments:

Payment is by credit card only. Credit card payments will be taken as part of the entry process. 

Refund Policy: 

  • Refund of 90% of fees paid for withdrawals prior to standard entry fee close date (Mon 3rd Oct).
  • Refund of 75% of fees paid  for withdrawals after standard entry fee date and before late entry close date (Mon 9th Oct).
  • No refund after Late entry close date.
  • To notify withdrawal from a race, fill out this form 
  • Refunds will be processed after the event. 

Entry queries:
Please email PAPOentries@gmail.com with any entry queries. 

Grades (Sunday Long distance):

Elite grades:

M21E/W21E for seniors and M20E/W20E for juniors.

Competitive grades:
Grades are in 2-year bands up to age 18 and in 10-year bands for over 40s.

Female grade

Male grade

Age (at end of the 2023)

Navigation difficulty

W10A

M10A

Age 10 or under.

White

W12A

M12A

Age 12 or under.

Yellow

W14A

M14A

Age 14 or under.

Orange

W16A

M16A

Age 16 or under.

Red

W18A

M18A

Age 18 or under.

Red

W21A

M21A

Any age.
Shorter course than W21E/M21E.

Red

W40A

M40A

Age 40 or over.

Red

W50A

M50A

Age 50 or over.

Red

W60A

M60A

Age 60 or over.

Red

W70A

M70A

Age 70 or over.

Red

W80A

M80A

Age 80 or over.

Red

Recreational grades:

For those that want an easier navigational challenge or shorter course than the competitive grade.
Or for those going as a team or juniors being shadowed by parents.

There will be five courses available:

Navigation difficulty

Age/gender

White

Easy navigation

Any age/gender.

Yellow

Moderate navigation

Any age/gender.

Orange

Hard navigation

Any age/gender.

Short Red

Very challenging navigation

Any age/gender.

Medium Red

Very challenging navigation

Any age/gender

If you have not run a red course before, we recommended you do not try your first red course at this event as the maps and courses are very technical. 
If you wish to change grade after entry but before final entries have closed, fill out this form.
After this date, only changes to the recreational grades may be made in person at the event. 

Start times:

Relays will have a mass start with first leg runners starting around 1pm.
Start times for the Long Distance will be allocated and published prior to the events. Earliest start is 10.30am.
Start times are now available, see link at the top of this page.
For start time requests (e.g. for parents sharing childcare duties), please fill out  this form.

Punching system

The SportIdent (SI) punching system will be used in all  events with Si Air+ enabled. Only regular SI cards will be available for hire: $3 per event.  

Accommodation in Craigeburn

PAPO have booked the STAC Lodge (Castle Hill village) and the Canterbury Environment Centre (Broken River road) for the night of Saturday 14th Oct, providing a great opportunity for competitors to stay together and be social. These 2 facilities provide beds for 76 people. 

  • The costs for STAC Lodge are $40 per senior, $30 per junior. STAC lodge is now FULL
  • For Canterbury Environment Centre, costs are $20 per person with under 5s free.
  • Camping will be available outside STAC Lodge, but only once the beds inside have been filled, $15 per person. 

To book, fill in this form: Castle Hill Accommodation - October 2023 - Bookings

Payments for accommodation need to paid online to the PAPO bank account: Westpac 03-0823-0425931-000. Include your name in the Particulars and CHACCOM in the reference. Bookings are confirmed once payment is received.

Details on STAC Lodge: https://www.stac.school.nz/why-stac/look-around-our-campus/castle-hill/ and Canterbury Environment Centre: http://www.enved.org.nz/