Champion of Champions Orienteering -Yr 8 Boys 1st!
On the 15 May 2018, four teams from Bombay School went to compete at the Champ Of Champs Auckland Orienteering at Reeves Farm Patumahoe. There were the Year 8 Boys, Year 8 Girls, Year 7 Boys, and Year 7 Girls. All of the competitors from Bombay did their best, and they were amazing at Franklin Zone the previous fortnight.
The Year 8 boys however, went above and beyond this year, pulling out on top of every other team in their group, and managed to place 1st. making them the best team in Auckland for their age. We all ran our very best, to try and succeed in our goal. Two of us came first on our courses, and all of us got under 22 Minutes, with the slowest being a mere 21:20, and the fastest being John O'Brien with 17:04. Our time for our team was 2 minutes, and 18 seconds faster than the second team, with our time being One hour, 13 minutes, and 57 seconds.
The map was set at Reeves Farm in Patumahoe and the average of our maps’ lengths was roughly 2 Kilometres. When we woke up that morning, it was pouring down with rain, and we couldn’t see 20 meters around us. We were all speculative on the weather, and a few of us were beginning to doubt whether we were going to be running at all. When we got to school it had died down a bit, and we were able to continue with the event. Once we had been given our school shirts to represent Bombay we set off in our cars to go to the destination. Our team (8 year boys)was split up between two different cars, and we both travelled along the same road. During our drive, which was at 9:10 am., the traffic was the usual rush hour time. While we were driving, we got to see, (but thankfully not experience) snail traffic, with cars bumper to bumper, and with impatient drivers behind the wheel. Thankfully, we were heading the other way, but a seed of doubt wove it’s way into our minds, as we were going to be heading on this very same road on the way back, and we were all wondering whether the traffic would still be this bad when we got back. Thankfully we were reassured by Mrs Rolfe that the traffic would be fine by the time we came back.
Once we had arrived at our destination, we took our bags and walked through the cattle farm, to the start line where we waited 30 minutes to start. We were all surprised to hear that it hadn’t rained at all, and all the moisture was from the morning dew. Our team was set to run at 10:09 am, and we were all nervous, snakes wriggling in our stomachs.. At 10:10 we picked up our maps and studied them like detectives on a crime, looking at every tiny detail.
We were Off! The wind was whistling in our ears, our feet trampling the knee high grass, our shoes being soaked from the dew sticking to the billions of grass blades. There were 19 controls in each course, and they were spread out over a 2.2 km course. The ground was uneven due to the cattle trampling throughout the fields, and the grass was taller than our knees because it was growing for the cows. As we ran through the course we passed multiple other schools, even though we were some of the first people to run. There were small ditches and mounds where the controls were most likely to be hidden.
As we continued throughout the run we were all, tired, parched, and generally drained. We ran through the course, jumping over cow poops, through and over fences, and at one point we even had to go through a barbed wire fence, although it was covered and padded with rugs. Our team was grouped together at the start, but throughout the run we got split up on our different courses. We constantly had to remind ourselves to check what way we were facing, so we could rotate our map to face North. We also had to make sure we were going to the right control, and when we did get there, we had to check the number multiple times to make sure we didn’t miss-click, and punch the wrong number. We all had to finish off our course by sprinting down a run, and punch the finish control to stop our time. Johno, Connor, Hayden, and Sam D, because only the first four peoples’ scores counted towards our time.
After we had finished, we had to wait for the other teams to finish, and then an extra 20 minutes on top of that to make sure that we were all cooled down, and re-hydrated. The we got into our cars, and drove back to school, only briefly coloured by small conversations about how well we did in our courses.
On the way back to school, Mrs Rolfe had a surprise for us, she shouted all of us Ice Creams, on her! The people who didn’t know of this surprise were thrilled,, and those who did know thankful, but sad that this was Mrs Rolfe’s last time that she would be able to do this. (Oh no! No more free Ice Creams!) so, 24 kids and 5 adults walked into the Bombay Caltex, the expressions on the cashier’s faces were priceless. As we got back into the car and drove the last stretch to school, our car made a deal that we would tease our fellow classmates (how evil we are) and wait until we were at school to eat our frozen treats.
Overall, this day went beyond our wildest expectations, and we wish we could do it all again with Mrs Rolfe.
We would also like to make a special thanks to the Parents for helping us achieve this goal. We could never of done this without you, and on behalf of everyone at school, we would love to thank you for driving us, and agreeing to stay to take us back home.
Finally, Mrs Rolfe. We all wish you could stay for another 10 years, but we know that your injuries restrict you. We’d all still love to thank you for organising, driving, and overall making all these sports events possible, and on behalf of Bombay School, we thank you for giving us these amazing opportunities to achieve goals we couldn’t have done without you.
As we rock up to school the next day, (before we knew that we had came first) we are doing the daily bus list, as usual. But then suddenly Mrs Rolfe is jumping up, and down screaming like she’d just won the jackpot! In Fact it was all to do with, you guessed it, orienteering.
“YES YES YES YES!!!!!!” she screamed because the Year Eight Boys had won the Auckland champs 2018 Orienteering. She was also especially happy that we had beaten the Puke Intermediate boys, by 2 minutes and 18 seconds. YAY!
-Sam D, Connor L, and John O
