JUST PASSING

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 233, 1 March 1988, Page 16

JUST PASSING

Keeping a very low profile as he dashed through the Ruapehu region this week was a young Canadian , athlete named Ross Burnett. After a night at the Ohakune youth hostel and hitching a ride to the Whakapapa motor camp, he did an afternoon run half way around the mountain and back to the Mangatepopo Hut. Ross, 28, is a full time orienteer who spends his life training for the unusual sport of blazing trails for up to two hours against the clock through unmarked terrain and wilderness with only a map and a thumb-compass. He has just completed the Asian-Pacific Orienteering Championships in Tasmania, where he came fifth, and as a member of the national Canadian team was doing an official reconnaissance tour of NZ A rather modest and quiet fellow, he volunteered very little information about himself. Asked by our informant who gave the Canadian his ride to Whakapapa if he had ever won a race, Ross disclosed that yes, he had won a few... the most recent being the national championship in Canada! To win the title, however, Ross, a cartographer in his spare time, had trained and competed for five years against the reigning champion Ted de St Croiz, who was the top Canadian orienteer for 11 years in a row before losing to Ross. 16 • Waimarino Bultetin Tuesday 1 March 1988