This summer I was selected to go on the JROS Stockholm Tour, a two week orienteering training camp, based at the OK Ravinen hut just south of the city.

The terrain was incredible, especially as it was my first taste of Scandinavian orienteering. Although the complex contours and rock detail confused me at the start, after a week I felt more confident. 

As well as the orienteering, we swam in crystal clear lakes nearly everyday, followed by a sauna, and enjoyed Swedish cuisine like Bilar, Gifflar and Pick n Mix. On the rest day we had an afternoon at Grona Lund theme park, followed by an evening exploring Stockholm centre.

We competed in four races over the fortnight, and although the results were not what I wanted, it was a great learning experience (especially in relocation exercises!)

I decided to take the train the Sweden, inspired by Innes Fitzgerald (see article), and combined this decision with an interrail taster trip, visiting London, Brussels, Hamburg and Stockholm on my way to the training camp. I met many people from around the world (Peru, Ukraine and Switzerland), some of whom I met with later in the week again for ‘Fika’, an amazing experience, and one of the many reasons I took the train, and will do so again in the future.

Thank you so much to all of the volunteers coaches, and the Jack Bloor Fund, who have made this experience possible for all of the athletes.

Towards the end of July, I caught the train up from Leeds all the way to Aviemore. Many of the participants met up on the journey. Coaches met us and drove us to Lagganlia outdoor camp, our accommodation for the next orienteering filled week. 23 upper year M/W14s had been selected to take part in this prestigious training camp based in the East Highlands. Lagganlia is a yearly event, each year taking up to 24 new juniors. We arrived on Saturday evening and were soon getting to know other people through icebreaker activities. Friends were already being made, and we could tell this was going to be a very fun week.

Day 1

After an 8 o’clock breakfast we headed out to Heathfield for a day of map practice, rides and wasp nests. In the afternoon we headed a little way down the track for a star relay. One person would take a tag out to control 1 then come back. Person two takes it from 1-2, person 3 takes it from 2-3, and so on until we had completed all controls. Some people were keen to head home after a large Scottish wood wasp invaded our camp. Luckily, they don’t sting so it was a pleasurable rare sighting.

Day 2

We took the minibus to North Granish for the second day. A trip filled with songs such as Combine Harvester, which turned into a daily tradition, although some coaches weren’t as keen on our loud singing. North Granish was an excellent area with loads of small rolling hills and birch trees, and it almost seemed like a magical landscape. We had a variety of exercises including long and short legs, corridor, handrails, hills, and depressions. The most interesting, though, was the sketch course (see map 1). That morning, we were given a course and set amount of time to draw our own sketch maps that we had to use to do the exercise. For most of us, we were able to complete the course using our maps, and I think most people learned a lot about simplifying through this challenge. We finished off the day with an odd and even relay where two people were running at once, and we had two maps: one with even-numbered controls and the other with odd. You could get one control at a time, and first team back with all controls wins. We finished off day 2 with a wonderful evening meal from wonderful cooks.

Day 3

For day 3 we changed it up a bit and headed to pine forested sand dunes at Roseisle. A really unique type of terrain that many hadn’t run on before. We got a large selection of courses which included some technical green section. The maps had most of the paths removed and some people decided to try navigating without a compass. I found this useful because I’ve improved on picking off detail features and orientating the map from them, which I did in the green.

After lunch we took the long route round to the relay start which didn’t seem necessary although the coaches said it was. After a morning of the forest pretty much to ourselves, the afternoon was filled with people. This relay was a distraction relay, we were all given a number and then the coaches handed over to us, so it was like we had the last leg in the relay by calling out our number. The race was filled with gaffles and coaches running around trying to distract us. They would shout things like “do you know what control you’re going to?” or “I’m lost can you help me” or “it’s that way”. Sometimes what the coaches were saying was correct, but you could never know. One of the controls wasn’t turned on so we had to use the pin punch. And to add to all this, there was a disused railway running down the middle of the area. And not to mention one of the coaches’ siblings turned up and ran around filming us. Luckily for me I knew exactly where I was going so I was overtaking people rather than looking lost.

Overall, I think I improved a lot from that day. My attention to detail, planning and route choice where what stood out to me as improvements. I am particularly proud of one leg on the relay where I took much superior route choice and saved about 20–30 seconds. Then back to the Lagganlia it was for cake, warm food, lots of games of hide and seek, a presentation by the coaches and our beds which were quickly becoming the primary thing we were looking forward to after each day.

Day 4

Wednesday was the day of the sprint orienteering. Firstly, a short drive brought us to Aviemore. This was the sprint qualifiers and the sprint championships. it was a gaffled, timed start, urban event with a little bit of forest. The course was made challenging through the use of artificial barriers. Some people got caught out by these and it cost them time or even their place in the results. Near the end there was a complex butterfly section near the golf course. Unfortunately, this was my worst result of the trip but I learnt from my mistakes as you’ll read in the next section. 

After the morning qualifiers, we headed to another outdoors centre called Glenmore Lodge. Everyone participated in the knockouts where we started off with 2 gaffled butterfly loops and then explored the rest of the site. This was my favourite location of the whole week which is partially because I won the knockouts. Our course was only 1.4km long for this but it still had some fairly steep hills especially the road alongside the ski slope. After this, the top 3 boys and top two girls from the two heats moved into quarantine for the final. There were slightly more boys than girls so that’s why there was a difference. For those who don’t know, quarantine is an area where competitors wait; they can’t see the start, you are forbidden to leave, strictly no electronics and there is a toilet there, so you don’t have to leave. We were told that in some events people have had to wait up to 8 hours in quarantine, so people often sleep. Luckily, we only had to wait for about 15 minutes.

For me and another athlete, this was going to be a very interesting race. For the final we had only 800m, 11 controls on a 1:1500 map! It was a very fast paced race and for me and the other athlete our first gaffle was the same. For the second one he completed it slightly faster than me, meaning for controls 9 onwards he had a head start. Between 9 and 10 it was very intense, and I managed to overtake him. Everyone was cheering us on not knowing what was about to happen as I ran into the finish in first place. I had beaten my competitor by seconds or so I thought until I downloaded. Mispunch! On the last control. I thought it was an error until I checked the map and saw that we had both missed control 11 (see map 2). Only the planner knew what had happened. Both me and the other athlete were so focused on the sprint finish that we had not noticed the final control. This meant that we were both disqualified but I still enjoyed it and it was such a fun event to do. And to finish the morning we had a game of volleyball. Then we headed back to Lagganlia to rest before the night.

At around 21:00 we headed to Spey Valley golf course for a selection of night courses, 2 light greens and an orange. Most people took this fairly easy. It was a good idea to include this event because it gave a range of different types of events. The golf course had fairly distinct features, so it was very safe. Because of this we did have quite a late bedtime, but everyone enjoyed it, and it was a good chance to practice night-o.

Day 5

For day 5 a load of tired and grumpy athletes had to go to Loch Vaa. Here we had lots of smaller exercises so back to normal again. Unfortunately, the map was a bit out of date and the whole place was covered in uneven heather which would normally be ok but just after a night-o you can guess it’s not pleasant. We had a few simplification exercises which were good as there were lots of controls. There were also lots of unique forest marsh and contour features and the group learnt lots about planning and execution here. In the afternoon was of course the competition event, a peg race. Eight main controls which all had an unknown number of pegs attached. There was a mass start and if you go to a control and there is a peg, you must take it and then complete the extra control. Soyou do 1 to 1a to 2 rather than 1 to 2. The finish also had pegs on it. The person with the most pegs wins. If 2 people both have the same number of pegs, it’s based on time. No control has enough pegs for everyone. This type of race is designed to make the better people get the pegs at the first control so the not so good people can get ahead. With no pegs it was 2.9km, compared to 3.7km which I did, and got back 2nd by about 0.25 seconds. This meant I won though because I was the only person who got all 6 pegs which is quite rare. I got the last peg on control 3 and there were people right behind me so at first seemed my win was very close, but then Don reminded me I wouldn’t have had to do the extra control at 3. This was probably my second favourite event of the week, and I am particularly proud of some of the legs (see map 3). 1 to 1a there was a large group following an earth wall, but we came off too early. I was first to relocate as I had been able to spot a tower. A skill I learnt earlier in the week. 3a to 4 lots of people were at the wrong end of a depression but using a spur at the correct end I was able to find the control effectively. 5 to 5a I saw people were going a lot slower through the heather and so I cut almost 90 degrees away from the control to reach a path and overtook around 3 people while also having a feature that led me straight in. Finally, 7 to 8 I went pretty much straight on this leg because there were lots of visible features and I am fast at running up hills and it paid off meaning I caught up to the person who was in first place. Little did they know, I had one more peg.

Day 6

By now we were all shattered, but this day was the most important of all. It was the tour championships. Located in Culbin Forest, a much harder version of Roseisle, 5.5km and 20 controls. The true test of skill was what the coaches planned by control 4. There was a big chain led by me and 2 other incredibly good orienteers. We used our skills from the past week to successfully find most controls, on some our bearings were slightly off. It was a really physicallychallenging area, so it was important that we used the skills we learnt effectively. To finish off the race there was a section through dark green full of complex contours. What a pleasant surprise! On this race we had start intervals of 3 minutes, meaning although we all finished together, we were just in reverse order of our starts. The girls had 4.5km with a few less hills to climb with the same technical level. We also had quarantine about 600m from the start which made it feel like a real event. I secured a strong second place but first would have been a touch nicer. We then took the minibus back and almost half the people fell asleep, luckily not the driver. That afternoon we did our final bit of orienteering. A relay on site. Two out of 3 runners out at once, there were 18 controls. You could get one each time. Some of the controls had a bag with an acrylic puzzle piece. They were coloured corresponding to our teams and the first team to complete the puzzle was the winner. Not everyone competed due to minor injuries that the coaches didn’t want to get worse right before the Scottish 6 days. They didn’t do nothing though, as one decided to organise our team from the start flag. With his help and our running combined we were able to win both competitions. However, the finish box wasn’t on the flag because one of the coaches had it and we had to chase him down to get it! To finish off, in the evening we had a big party meal, 3 excellent courses by the cooks. This was followed by the ceilidh, a traditional Scottish country dance. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend the last evening. But wait… it wasn’t over yet because at 22:30 we all had to sneak out and hide without the coaches finding us. They were supposed to come out at 22:30 but they were enjoying themselves relaxing in their hot tubs. I think we should get them next year. Anyway, this meant that everyone got to their hiding spots fine. Maybe it was our practice playing lots of games of hide and seek throughout the week, the coaches weren’t able to find us. However, one person handed themselves in because of the cold and another thought they had been found when they misheard the coach so got up and were spotted. Everyone else was out there until exactly 23:50 when we headed straight to the coaches’ cabin for a chocolate. What a great way to finish, a nice late night before some of us had a complex train journey home.

I had a fantastic week and very much thank the coaching team, organisers, selectors, cooks, and other helpers for making this possible. I massively improved my orienteering skills and made new friends and am looking forward to my next year of orienteering. Finally, I thank JROS, British Orienteering, Airienteers, and the Jack Bloor fund, for their very generous financial contributions.

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!

In the first week of July, the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) took place in the stunning region of Trento, Italy, with the event centre based in the lakeside town of Baselga di Piné. It was amazing to see the town leaning into the sport with the JWOC mascot visible on every roundabout and many of the population showing their support at the opening ceremony.

Across the week, five races were held: the mixed sprint relay, individual sprint, long distance, middle distance, and relay, with a rest day in between. This was my second JWOC, and with the experience of last year behind me, I was incredibly excited heading into the event. The dramatic landscapes of the Dolomites and the technical, high-paced racing did not disappoint!

The first race of the week was the mixed sprint relay—always one of the most thrilling events. Set in a blend of alpine town and park, the course demanded rapid shifts in navigation style, from quick decision-making in the urban sections to the ramping up of speed in the park. With temperatures hitting 38°C, it was a challenging day, and although I enjoyed the adrenaline of the mass start, I found the heat particularly tough to race in. 

Next up was the individual sprint, which turned out to be my best performance of the week. I ran a clean race and placed 51st. The team atmosphere was gret and super supportive, especially with one of our teammates achieving an incredible 4th place and earning a spot on the podium!

The forest races began with the long distance—an endurance challenge covering 10.5 km with 500 meters of climb. Staying focused for the full 90 minutes was demanding, and although my navigation held for most of the race, a lapse in concentration near the end cost me two minutes at the third-to-last control, dropping me five places. The middle distance followed, offering runnable forest and more detailed navigation. Guttingly once again a really good run was hampered by a mistake towards the end in a vaguer marshy area, but I was still very happy overall.

The relay was a super fun end to the week. Watching the boys’ race start from quarantine gave us front-row seats to the action and boosted the excitement. I was proud of my run, managing to gain seven places before handing over to our third-leg runner.

All in all, JWOC was an unforgettable experience—racing in new and challenging terrain, connecting with athletes from around the world, and learning from every moment. While there were things I could have improved, I’m ultimately really happy with my performances and progress.

A huge thank you to the Jack Bloor Fund for helping make this incredible opportunity possible!

After 3 years of competing for GB at various contential races, at the beginning of July I travelled to Tiszaujvaros in Hungary for what would be my first race at World Cup level.

Tiszy is an iconic race on the world triathlon circuit, the small town coming together to host a festival including two days of fast and competitive sprint distance racing for the elites. The weather provided an extra challenge, with temperatures reaching a crazy 37°C the Thursday before the race and still over well over 30 on race day.

I was super excited to get stuck in and challenge myself against some of the best triathletes in the world, my main aims being to perform to my best and qualify for the final.

In my heat there were some rapid swimmers that strung out the race but I managed to swim well, ending up in a large chase pack of around 15 people all fighting for 4 auto qualifying spots on the 5km run. I managed my effort well but got outkicked in the final few hundred metres and finished 10th, one place outside of the top 9 auto-q places. 

Despite this, I managed to qualify for the final in a fastest loser spot, with a quick run where I pushed hard all the way to the line paying dividends. That meant a focus on recovery to go again the following day.

In the final I was well in the mix through the swim but a small mistake putting my helmet on in T1 meant I missed the main pack, having to ride solo on the bike. I pushed as hard as I could to keep as close to the race as possible over the 8 lap, crit style circuit, averaging my highest power to date in a triathlon and finished off running hard as I could in the brutal heat.

Unfortunately at this level the margins are small and that small error cost me hugely- the final result wasn’t what I was hoping for, but it was a great experience nevertheless, especially thanks to the extra cheers and chants from the crowd that helped get me through the race during the tough moments.

Overall the trip was an amazing experience and a great taste of racing at World cup level. Qualifying for the final and coming close to a great final result has inspired me to work even harder towards my goals for the rest of the year to qualify for the World U23 championships in Australia. A huge thanks to the Jack Bloor Fund for supporting me and allowing me to have this opportunity, it was a trip I’ll never forget.

In late June, I headed out to the Junior World Orienteering Championships with the kind support of the Jack Bloor Memorial Fund. The championships were held in the Trentino-Alto Adige region of the Dolomites in northern Italy, specifically in the town of Baselga di Pinè.

The event consisted of five races – three individual and two team relay events – with one rest day in between. The first two races were sprint orienteering events, held in small Alpine villages. This style of orienteering is definitely my favourite. The two villages – Levico Terme and Cembra – were exceptionally intricate, made up of small alleyways, underpasses, and cut-throughs. Both races were made more challenging by the addition of artificial barriers that blocked access to certain streets and routes, making the navigation even more complex.

The first of the two sprint events was the mixed sprint relay, held in Levico Terme. I raced in the second of three British teams and ran the first leg, meaning I took part in the mass start alongside about 80 other teams. I handed over to my second-leg runner in 13th place and was very happy to be the first Brit back! We ultimately finished 11th overall, making us the second British team.

The following day was the individual sprint in Cembra – a village that had never been mapped before! I was delighted to finish 37th out of nearly 150 runners.

Then, it was time to hit the forests. The final three events were all located in different Alpine forests, which were steep and physically demanding. The first of these was the long-distance race, held in an area known as Argentiera. The terrain features over 6,000 pits left by historical silver mining, making navigation extremely tricky – avoiding a game of “pit bingo” while trying to locate controls was a real challenge! I ended up clocking over 12 km that day.

Thankfully, a rest day followed, which we on the team were all very grateful for after the long-distance event.

The final two races – the middle distance and the forest relay – were held in the same area of forest: Laghestèl. The middle distance involved about 4 km of running and, thankfully, was far less pitted than the long. In the forest relay, I ran the last leg for my team and held our 22nd-place position to the finish!

All in all, it was a very positive week filled with a lot of running, pizza, pasta, and lake swimming – which left me pretty tired! I’m very thankful for the support of the Jack Bloor Memorial Fund, who helped make this unforgettable trip possible.

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 7^th 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 9^th 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. 

Tom Halton, member of @BMC had a dream to climb mountains. He had climbed many mountains but his big dream was Ama Dablam, Nepal

He signed up for a one to one training course with a very experienced mountaineer, to learn about alternative methods of abseiling if the usual gear is lost.

Tom travelled to Nepal in April and this is what he wrote on his return:

‘Unfortunately it was an especially difficult season on Ama Dablam this year with challenging conditions and an incident where another climber fell around 20 meters above me. 

I turned back just 100 meters from the summit which was definitely the right decision because some of the ropes had frozen underneath the blue ice. 

I’m very proud of how far I reached and I intend to return in October and try again with hopefully safer conditions.’

‘I climbed it rope-solo so without climbing Sherpas or climbing partners but I was attached into the fixed ropes with an ascender to catch a fall. I basically used the fixed ropes as a top rope belay but free climbed the route.’ 

Well done Tom, sounds like a good decision to descend.