The Junior World Orienteering Championships this year was held in the mountainous, beautiful, and very hot region of Trentino in Italy. The week consisted of a few days of training and getting ready for the terrain beforehand, alongside an opening ceremony and then 5 races, Mixed Sprint Relay, Sprint Distance, Long Distance, Middle Distance, Forest Relay. This was my last year of JWOC as it is my last year as a junior, so after running a few JWOC’s in the years before this, I was excited to the new challenge of the steep technical terrain with some international experience already behind me.
The Mixed Sprint Relay started off the week which was super exciting. I was running 1st leg which was so much fun as the head-to head aspect of a relay is always great. I had a great first half of the course and was up running with the leaders, and then unfortunately lost some time in the park in the second half of the course, especially struggling in the 38 degrees of heat! However, the rest of the team ended up doing a great job and we ended up 7th nation.
The sprint distance the next day was in technical Italian hill town terrain with lots of passageways and cobbles. The course was super fun but very stressful with lots of tricky route-choices. After some mistakes on the course, I was not completely happy with my performance, but so brilliant to see the team do so well.
The forest races of the long and middle distance were very tough in the heat again, with lots of steep slopes, and route choices to challenge both the physical and technical.
The relay to end the week was also on similar terrain to the long and middle distance, and we ended up placing 9th nation, after a course with some varied terrain and lots of different controls.
Despite some highs and lows, I had an incredible experience racing in JWOC this year, and I am so grateful to the Jack Bloor fund for supporting me towards this, so I can continue to race and develop as an athlete whilst transitioning to the senior level this year.
Jack Bloor Race & Fund 