Orienteer Tara creating a map for success
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Tara Melhuish is one of 30 ACT sporting heroes nominated in the Canberra Milk People’s Sporting Champion public vote for the CBR Sports Awards 2019.
Tara Melhuish started orienteering when she was just 10-years-old.
She got into it “pretty quickly” and, after a year, thought about doing it a bit more seriously.
“I always liked being active, but I think at that age just running was a bit boring, or tedious,” Tara says.
“I wasn’t really a runner before I started orienteering, and if I was just to run, it was difficult, so it was a nice distraction to look at the map.”
Tara is one of 30 ACT sporting heroes who have been nominated in the Canberra Milk People’s Sporting Champion public vote.
Voting for the Canberra Milk People’s Sporting Champion is open until the end of this month, and by voting for your favourite sporting champion, you can also nominate your favourite school or sports club to go in the draw to win $5000 worth of sporting equipment
The Canberra Milk People’s Sporting Champion is part of the CBR Sport Awards which celebrate Canberra’s top athletes and teams, and also recognise the coaches, referees, judges, mentors, and sports trainers who work behind the scenes.
Orienteering is a navigation sport, and orienteers visit “checkpoints” in order, using only a map and compass.
Tara says she enjoys the way the sport combines different elements.
“I like the running aspect of it, and it’s nice to have a mental challenge as well that’s a bit different to classic study,” she says.
“It’s outdoors so you get to go to a lot of nice places. And everyone involved [in the sport] is really nice.”
She says success depends on balancing the two most important aspects of orienteering—running, and reading the map.
“It comes down to your ability to combine the physical and mental and get the right balance between the two, because obviously you can’t run too fast or you have no energy to think about where you’re going,” she says.
“But you can’t win if you go too slow, so finding that balance and getting it right, and not making mistakes on race day.”
A career highlight was coming 27thin the long distance category at the Junior World Championships in Hungary last year.
The 19-year-old is also a first-year physiotherapy student at University of Canberra and says she’s enjoying learning how the body works.
After taking a gap year last year, she is hoping to compete in the Senior World Championships in Denmark next year.
Orienteering has allowed her to see some beautiful, and different terrain.
“I like the travel aspect of orienteering, having gone to Europe for the fourth time this year in now four years,” Tara says.
“For the scenery, Switzerland, was probably my favourite, but for the actual orienteering, the terrain in Hungary was probably the nicest that I’ve done.
“But also I like a lot of the granite maps that we have in rural Australia.”
She’s thrilled to be nominated as part of the Canberra Milk People’s Sporting Champion public vote.
“It’s nice to see that I’ve got some support behind me, especially when some races this year haven’t really gone my way, it’s nice to see it’s still there,” she says.
Tara works with her orienteering coach, Brodie Nankervis, who lives interstate, to build a training program with him.
She does most of her training by herself, but she’s also the leader of a “casual unofficial” group of young female orienteers in the ACT.
The group is garnering huge wins nationally and internationally (including a first ever National League junior team title in 2018)
“We sometimes do the actual orienteering trainings together. I’ve been on a training break for a month but before that I was doing my hard training with a running group,” she says.
“I do interval trainings, sometimes flat, sometimes hills, and then I do all my general running on Red Hill because that’s near where I live, so I have plenty of hill running if I want it.”
And plenty more hills to come.
Vote for your favourite local sporting champion at: outincanberra.com.au/cbrsportsawards/vote-now
CBR Sport Awards wishes to acknowledge Canberra Milk, who have generously supported the People’s Sporting Champion since its inception in 2016 and, through this, many of Canberra’s sportspeople have been given the opportunity to be recognised by Canberra’s passionate sporting community.
Canberra Milk has contributed, annually, $5,000 worth of sporting equipment to lucky sporting clubs and schools as part of the People’s Sporting Champion.
The CBR Sport Awards will be held on Friday 29 November at the National Arboretum. Tickets on sale from 30 August.
Visit cbrsportawards.com.au for information on the Awards Night, selection process for the category awards as well as past winners and finalists.
Nominations for the CBR Sport category awards will be open in early September. Sporting clubs and organisations will be invited to put forward their nominations for a variety of awards including Athlete of the Year, Rising Star, Team of the Year and Outstanding Service to Sport.
The Minister for Sport and Recreation will also present awards for Event Excellence, Innovation and Inclusion.
This is a sponsored editorial. For more information on sponsored editorials, click here.
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