Orienteering: Early to bed tip still key for kids

The message is loud and clear.

Derek Morrison did what all good fathers do - emphasise the virtues of going to bed early.

Just ask daughter Amber Morrison.

"Always go to bed early," is what Amber says Derek would religiously tell her and her three other siblings.

How early?

"The night before the night before," she says.

Really? Why so early?

"I have no idea. He probably just wanted us to go to bed," Amber says with a chuckle.

Oh, by the way, the Morrison kids still follow their father's advice.

And yes, it scarcely matters that Amber is 25, Ross is two years older, Kate's 21 and Duncan 19.

It makes perfect sense for budding athletes not to baulk if they ever want to scale the upper echelons of the challenging world of orienteering.

"You are even more rested because the body takes much longer to recover than people really think," Amber, the podiatrist, says before jetting off to Lausanne, Switzerland, for the 2012 Orienteering World Championship that starts from July 14.

It's the second champs for Amber who made the final after finishing fifth in her heat in Chanberry, near Lyon, France, but she's going to Switzerland as team manager of the New Zealand team at the World University Championship.

Sprint/middle distance specialist Ross, despite numerous efforts couldn't be contacted, because he is studying in Finland, but was also competing at the European Championship in Sweden last week.

No doubt Derek, who is the chief executive of Anglican Care (Waipu) Ltd, has been their technical adviser as the children blossomed in their sport almost by default.

Kate is a geography and bachelor of science research student at Auckland University and is competing in her maiden senior champs.

Duncan, who flats with Kate, is a second-year commerce and arts degree student and is competing in the Junior Worlds in Ksoice, Slovakia, where Derek will watch him before the pair head off to watch the other trio at the senior champs.

"We draw from each other," Amber explains when asked if there's any chemistry or rivalry among them.

In many aspects, Amber's initiation into a sport that requires you to think smartly on your feet epitomises how the others embraced it, too.

"I was only 4 years old and I was dragged out there. At the age of 7, I was doing it by myself.

"I didn't have a chance. I was running and doing athletic, too, so I thought why not."

She's not totally sold on Kate's assessment. Ross, Kate reckons, is the zany one, always cracking them up.

"Amber keeps us in line and I just follow along," she says, adding the baby in the family, Duncan, does that, too.

Amber begs to differ, adding Duncan has a tendency to assert himself.

"He's the youngest so he has to be heard but he has big steps to follow."

She is indebted to her boss, Lynley Boyce, who runs Boyce Podiatry in Havelock North, for sponsoring her to the champs.

Needless to say, Amber has no qualms about helping her siblings with their feet. She already offers tips to Kate on "biomechanic issues".

At the senior champs, each discipline will have three heats, with 40 in a field.

The top 15 will make the cut for the finals but in the long distance the cut-off mark is 25 places.

Kate's boyfriend, Rassmus Andersson, hails from Uppsala, not far from Stockholm, but she's never been to Switzerland.

"It's my first time in the senior world champs so it'll be quite exciting for me," says the youngster who has been to five juniors in Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Australia.

She finished 22nd in 2009 in the long-distance event in the mountains of Italy.

She is looking forward to catching up with Ross but also the thought of a family reunion of sorts in an exotic country.

"I was only a week old when my family started competing in orienteering. I soon joined in, got competitive and developed from there," Kate says.

She sees the World University Championships, starting next week, as a good opportunity for her to acclimatise before facing the heat during the senior worlds in Lausanne.

Kate receives tips from Dieter Wolf, a former New Zealand coach.

The New Zealand team comprises five males and just as many females.

Duncan missed out last year because of "bad training".

"I'm more motivated to train now," he says, looking forward to competing on the backdrop of an old city with majestic mountains skirting the area after surfing the website.

"We'll be sprinting around an old city and finishing at the square," he says, partial to 12min sprints over 2km distances.

Former Napier Girls' High school student Sarah Anderson, 20, also at Auckland University, is in the juniors team.

So what about the Morrison siblings' mum?

Regrettably, Val Morrison will have to keep in touch with progress via modern technology at home because she can't get time off work as a hostel employee for Lindisfarne College, in Hastings.