In early August I went to Wales as a volunteer instructor at RLSS UK Camp Survive and Save and then competed in the European Interclub Lifesaving Championships.

The Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) is the Drowning Prevention Charity and the UK’s leading provider of water safety and drowning prevention education. Camp Survive and Save is a residential international exchange camp for young lifesavers, between 14 and 18 years old. It combines learning key lifesaving skills, with fun and cultural activates; alongside British participants there were also groups from Germany and the Czech Republic.

I was in charge of instructing the Survive and Save Bronze Beach award to the yellow group, this group had no lifesaving experience and were completing the camp as part of their gold Duke of Edinburgh award. While it was challenging to teach candidates with no lifesaving experience in the limited time we had available it was also very rewarding. They were all engaged in the awards and took so much from learning a new skill and experiencing new environments. With some challenging surf conditions throughout the week they had the opportunity to experience the power of water and learnt how important it is that to know vital rescue and self survival skills. It is safe to say they all enjoyed their week and I did too. I relish the opportunity to teach these open water awards on behalf of the society, the challenges of teaching a new group was very enjoyable and has continued to help me grow and develop my delivery style.

When camp sadly came to an end it was time for me to head 30 minutes down the road to Swansea, to take part in the European Interclub Lifesaving Championships. This was my first major event as a team manager of our club, so as well as competing I was also ensuring we had all the information we required and the team knew when they needed to be where. Racing for Rawmarsh is always a pleasure; the lifesaving club has given me so much over the last few years and again to race with my friends at my second international interclub event (we competed at Rescue 2014, World Interclub Lifesaving Championships) was a great experience. The competition includes pool and surf events, we specialise more in the pool events. Having trained in the pool the day before, the competition could not have got off to a better start; in the Simulated Emergency Response Competition (SERC) we won a gold medal. This event involves a ‘situation’ in the pool, a team of four needs to respond to the situation appropriately and rescue the casualties in the most appropriate manner. Winning the gold was my first international lifesaving medal and a very proud moment; we narrowly missed out on a medal in the same event at Rescue 2014. The rest of the competition went well, my times were on or around my personal best and I picked up points for coming top 20 in one event. Racing at an international event is always a challenging environment, but one I relish. I have taken lots away from the competition and will go back to training with more purpose as I prepare for my next event. We are already planning our team for Rescue 2016 when the World Interclub Lifesaving Championships are taking place in Eindhoven.

Winning Team Gold in the Simulated Emergency Response Competition

Without financial assistance I am unable to attend these sorts of events, the support from the Jack Bloor Trust made a massive difference to me personally attending both of these events and I must extend my unreserved gratitude to them for their support.

On the 1st of July the GB team flew out to Norway for the Junior World Orienteering Championships, it was a strange feeling knowing that 9 months of preparation, training and racing had  led to this single week at the start of July.
The first race up was the sprint; I wasn’t expecting much in the way of a result and was just hoping for a run I could be happy with, a good first section including a strong time for the long leg 2 saw me in 9th just before the spectator control. But then 2 big mistakes on controls 9 and 10 saw me drop down to 59th. From then on I knew it was race over and cruised round the second half to come in 66th but not hugely disappointed.
The second race was the middle qualifier the next day. With my best domestic results of the year coming in the middle distance this was the main aim for me and I had high hopes of making the A final. Unfortunately, despite setting off very steadily to make sure I got the navigation right I still made to big mistakes on controls 3 and 4. The rest of my race wasn’t too bad and I pulled up a number of places but not enough to get back into the top 20, coming in 26th and a minute outside of qualification.
The middle B final, not what I’d been hoping to run in so no pressure or expectation. Just running to enjoy it. I set off a lot quicker than the qualifier and though I made quite a few mistakes I enjoyed it a lot more than the qualifier.
After 2 days off (I hadn’t been selected to run the long) I was running first leg for the B team, the main aim being to beat the A team. I had a very average run to come back 14th nation on first leg, my next two runners had good runs to end up 10th nation, a result I could actually be happy with, and more importantly, comfortably ahead of our A team.
Whilst I didn’t get the results I wanted from the week I had an amazing time and it has left me incredibly motivated to achieve my goal next year of getting selected for the World University Orienteering Championships. And I would like to thank everyone involved with the Jack Bloor Fund for helping me to take part.

Matthew Elkington @Matt_Elk

Matt in action at the sprint distance
Photo credit Porsgrunn-O-Lag

Conquering the Dragon 

Approximately 8pm, Friday 26^th June 2015, I entered Carreg Cennen castle and conquered the dragon. For those not in the know, the Dragons Back race is a 300km race, over 5 days, with 16000m of ascent along the spine of Wales. I was one of the lucky ones- out of 300 entries, 140 were deemed to have suitable experience for the race, and 128 made the start line- of those only 65 finished the whole 5 days. It was without a doubt the toughest thing I have ever been a part of and I am proud to have had the opportunity to participate in the event and even prouder that I just about managed to hold it all together enough to make the finish. Throughout the whole event the marshals were so friendly and helpful despite them getting less sleep than the competitors! As you can pick your start time between 6am and 9am, the slower runners tend to set off first which means the field is quite bunched up through each day. This helps as there is always someone to run with and talk to.

A massive thank you to the Jack Bloor Fund for providing £100 towards the race entry fee which enabled me to turn a dream into reality. I have written a full account of my race on my blog at: http://awholelotofrunning.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/conquering-dragon.html

WSOC Turkey

Thank you to the Jack Bloor Fund for supporting my trip to the World Schools Orienteering Championships. As you will see from my report below, the opportunity enabled me to experience running in new types of terrain and develop my orienteering skills in a warmer climate which should be very useful for the future.

Attending the World Schools Championships in Kemer, Turkey, was an incredible experience. There were 540 athletes from 22 different countries from as far as New Zealand and China.

The first day consisted of waking up at seven after three hours of sleep, due to various delayed flights the day before, and heading out to for the model event. The area was based on the cost in a beautiful bay that was riddled with ancient ruins and arches. The area was set up like the competitions would be on the following days so we could get an idea of the layout. The actual area varied from a small section of fast sand dunes to very steep slopes that were rocky underfoot. They had put many controls out and we were given the freedom to go around at our own pace, which in my case was very slow considering the sleep deprivation. This area was mapped by the same person as the competition areas so it was useful to see what was mapped and what wasn’t. For example, I learnt that Turkish boulders were much bigger than english ones so what for me was a relatively large bolder was like a pebble for them. After training we went paddling in the sea and some of the England Squad even reported sightings of a tortoise!

After returning to the hotel to have a massive buffet my excitement to explore the pool and beach made me forget how tired I was. Next we were to take part in the opening ceremony which consisted of a parade of all the countries through the town of Tekirova, many Mexican waves and various performances from Turkish dancers and drummers. It was quite a spectacle.

The next day was the day of the Long Distance event. The area was hilly and rocky but also had lots of thick vegetation which made route choice interesting. The heat was also a limiting factor so unusually the people with earlier starts probably benefitted in that sense. I was racing a Turkish girl who was clearly not effected at all as she sprinted in with not merely a drip of sweat. Our W1 select team had done really well, managing to cling onto first position, 30 seconds in front of Austria and a good few minutes ahead of the Swedish team which surprised us all. The evening was spent by the pool and on the beach with maybe a tiny bit of revision.

The cultural day started with a huge foam party in the morning to wake us all up. We then had to get down to practicing Morris Dancing for England’s cultural performance. The performances varied massively from the traditionally French can-can to New Zealand doing the Haka.

Next was the Middle Distance race, which for me was quite frustrating. I was so close to having a good run apart from one leg which cost me 4 minutes. Other than that leg I really enjoyed the course. Despite it being extremely close Austria just beat us to the top of the podium so we had to settle for second which was still more than any of us was expecting!

On the last day we got to take part in the friendship relay. This consisted of three people from different countries forming a team to do a kind of sprint race around the town of Kemer. I was with Megan Ricketts from Scotland who I was already good friends with and a Ukrainian boy. We had 45 minutes to plan who was going to collect which controls including three controls which we all had to meet up at and punch at the same time. My first control seemed to be a very popular choice so in the end a 100m leg took me 6 minutes as I tried to dig myself into the middle of a crowd to get my dibber in contact with the box. That’s where an air dibber would have come in very handy! Anyway I’m not too sure where my team finished in the end but it was a great experience especially having to overcome the language barrier, which lucky for me only affected one member of the team as english was the main language spoken. After the relay we all had the chance to swap some team kit with other countries. I managed to get a top from New Zealand and from Portugal.

After the closing ceremony which included more dancers and even a bike stunt man, we had the farewell party which was amazing. However we didn’t get into bed till 1am only to be hold we had to get up at 2am for the coach back to the airport. After various flights and trains I arrived home at 6pm after what was probably one of the best weeks of my life.

I have made so many new friends from many different countries who I hope to stay in contact with and have experienced such great new terrain and cultures. I would definitely recommend any Junior orienteers to try get selected as it is such an invaluable experience.