In the last week of July, the European University Orienteering Championships took place Łódź, Poland. For the event, university teams from across Europe gathered for 3 days of racing: The Sprint (urban), The Middle (forest) and Relay (urban).
Having had some time away from navigation and orienteering whilst I focused on my running, it was brilliant to be back competing abroad, amongst many athletes who I had come to know during my junior international years. With a day of model events to get us accustomed to the area and mapping styles, we moved onto the race days, which saw us competing in some hot and humid weather.
The sprint was a fast and extremely enjoyable course with some classic uncrossable details that saw many athletes trip up on the navigational front (myself included!). All the same I was able to make it back with a decent result- the main take away of the day being how fun and exciting the whole race had been.
At this point, dutifully following the recommendations of the vice-president of the orienteering championships, many athletes headed to Łódź Festival to dive deep into the cultural experience of a completely free, 3-day mass music festival taking place at the same time as the competition. The highlight of this was the cross-boarder friendships that saw members of the British, Austrian and Finnish teams all enjoying the occasion together.
Next up was the forest middle-distance race, which was an extremely fast paced race with no room for error. Having made a few mistakes at the start of the course I had lost a fair bit of time, but the second half of the race went smoothly for me, allowing me to earn a top-30 placed finish. By this point athletes from the different universities had made friends and we were able to cheer each other on despite our competitive nature.
My University team had several members whose birthdays would take place during the course of the competition. We therefore ventured out into the town of Łódź to explore the Polish Restaurants, where we could fuel up for the Sprint Relay the following day.
The mixed sprint relay would consist of 4 legs: 1st and 3rd leg run by myself, and 2nd and 4th leg run by my teammate Sam. On each day we had experienced several hours of pre-race quarantine and this occasion was no different apart from that the whole quarantine was taking place in the Łódź city centre train station! With the station activities going on as usual (passengers going about their daily commute) it was a rather surreal experience to be sat with a host of student orienteers, all amongst the regular station users, engaged in endless games of UNO or naughts and crosses, as we waited for the signal that would allow us to head to the start.
After a fast and furious head to head, the relay proved to be our best combined result, finishing in 7th place overall, which we were very pleased with. Being an Oxford team, we naturally compared ourselves to our Cambridge rivals, who had placed 6th, two years previously. Ever the competitor we hope to return again in two years, to improve our result further.
Overall, the European university Championships were a fantastic experience that I cherish dearly.
A huge thank you to the Jack Bloor Fund for helping make this experience possible for me! I have made so many great memories that I will remember for life!
Jack Bloor Race & Fund 