First to finish the first (Sprint) event was Lizzie Ingham, starting very fast but fading a little in the heat over the second half. As her team mate Ross said, “It was like running in a sauna”. And, for Lizzie, making her debut in big elite international orienteering was an “eyeopener”, as she wondered about coping with heat as well as the elite competition. But, a 22nd place for Lizzie - after playing it safe – and the 20 year-old was definitely footing it with the world's best.

What a start for the team – could it get better?

Who better to answer that question than the next Kiwi starter – Tania Larsen. Having come back from injury to take two National titles this year to qualify, she flew around the Museum of Fine Arts parkland. With a huge career behind her she had the extra ability and experience to pace her race superbly – and accelerate smoothly in the second half – for a great result. 14th ! It had gotten better.

Then the men were sent out hunting down the coloured flags, armed only with a map, compass and Dirty-D team uniform, and fuelled mostly by several decalitres of cold water.

Despite the heat, Darren Ashmore looked cool and calm to finish 4th of the early starters, while knowing that the big names were among the last starters. And staking a claim on a “big name” was young Rocketman Ross from Hawke’s Bay who showed up on the TV leading the time-splits throughout the course. In Ross's words: “My race went pretty well...After about the 13th control I could feel myself starting to slow up. The heat was killing me. It was a real battle, but I really pushed myself to try and keep a reasonable tempo until the finish. This paid off big time.”

Ross, in the lead at the finish after an all-out last sprint, then got to wait and see how many of the big names would beat his time. And watch them “feeling the burn through the spectator control”. World Champion (long distance) Daniel Hubman (Switzerland) made a hash of a fast start leaving his map behind and losing a few crucial seconds. And he soon realised how crucial that fumble was, when World Sprint Champion Andrey Khramov took the win from Hubman by the smallest of margins, a mere second. Ouch. Although Khramov does have a 5000m PB of 14:05!

Then, with only seven others managing to beat Ross's time it suddenly clicked – tenth, top ten, number 10 – Ross had cracked the big time and achieved his best placing in a world level event. But, it wasn't just Ross's best – it was New Zealand’s best at elite level since 1994 when Al Landels won the World Cup in New Zealand, or 1990 when Katie Fettes was 10th at the World Champs. What a year Ross was having – a win at JK, at the Dansk park Tour and now 10th at the Games. The Rocketman was certainly fulfilling all the promise he first showed as a seven year old racing around Kau Kau with map in hand. And the World Champs were still to come (in Hungary, 18-23 August).

But with the Middle distance and the Relay yet to be raced there was no time for a celebratory drink.

The middle distance race was described by many as “two sprint courses stuck together” Which meant some more close finishes in store and that leg speed was crucial. Lizzie Ingham improved on her sprint result by one place for 21st , and just pipped Tania Larsen (22nd) by a miniscule margin of 1.8 seconds.

Former World Champion Hanny Allston, from across the ditch, turned the tables on Finnish Minna Kaupi to win the Middle by a massive 78 seconds.

Darren, our NZ Middle Distance Champion, then put in an almighty effort over the superfast course and looked to have a top 20 finish in the bag (after 30th in the sprint). It took another storming run from Ross to surpass Darren and push him into 21st, a best ever for Darren, and Ross was 18th, just 41 seconds ahead.

Swiss star Daniel Hubmann made sure of his start, his middle and his finish, to finally pick up a Games gold to go with his Championships set, ahead of Russians Tsvetkov and Khramov, by 33 and 68 seconds respectively.

This may have been a bit of an incentive for the Russians though, as they (in the rarely used two-men, two-women format) proceeded to outclass the others to take the Relay race convincingly on the next day.

The New Zealand team showed that the previous races were no fluke and proceeded to run the races of their careers, starting with Ross finishing the first leg in 9th only 1:29 minutes behind the Russian leaders, not letting the longer forkings hold him back. Great running continued for New Zealand. Although the fancied Danish and Finnish teams, who Ross had shown a clean pair of heels to, slipped past, the Kiwis finished with a great 11th place, 11 minutes down on the winners. The Finns in fact improved to second place with great running from Minna Kaupi, while the Aussies moved up to 4th after Hanny Allston's efforts.

A great race to finish a great World Games. And amongst the vivid memories of great runs by the New Zealanders is sure to be that of entering the stadium to the roar of a crowd of 40,000 at the opening ceremony. Who says you need to be an Olympics sport to have all the fun?

Team photo by Mick Finn