Hawke's Bay's former world championships competitor Amber Morrison made a winning return to the national orienteering championship scene yesterday.
In her first nationals since 2013, Morrison, 30, won the elite women's sprint on day one of the four-day nationals which have attracted 500 orienteers to Hawke's Bay.
"It was as if she hadn't been away from the nationals ... she won by almost a minute," Morrison's brother and event manager Duncan Morrison said as he reflected on his sister's victory in the sprint staged in Hastings.
Morrison, who is only competing in the nationals because they are in the Bay, finished ahead of Aucklander Renee Beveridge and the entrant she thought would be her closest rival, Nelson's Georgia Whitla. Before the nationals Morrison, who competed at two senior world champs and one junior worlds earlier in her orienteering career which began as a 7-year-old, said she was targeting the sprint and long-course individual titles.
She was Hawke's Bay's sole title winner yesterday.