The trip started with a 4am wakeup call and before I’d woken up fully the entire England team consisting of 40 athletes and 8 coaches were airborne and headed for Portugal. Two years ago I went to the World Schools in Trentino Italy; it was one of the best trips of my life, I couldn’t help but anticipate another great week. As we approached Faro airport the excitement built. The golden sands of the Algarve stretched for miles into the horizon as we began our descent. On arrival the England team were greeted and bussed to our accommodation in Monte Gordo a small town close to the Spanish border. That afternoon we unpacked before heading to the beach which was just 50 metres from our hotel. In the evening we spoke to some of the other nations as everyone was staying in the same hotel.
The next day we went training in areas similar to the Long and Middle distance races. It was a great opportunity as both training areas bordered onto the actual race maps so provided an accurate idea of what we could expect. In the morning we trained on the Long model area. I ran a few of the controls, and then jogged around the map to view different sorts of features and vegetation in order to assess how things would be mapped. In the afternoon we moved to the middle training area. I went around the course getting a feel for the area.
Quarantine for the middle race was located just 250metres from the hotel. Once there I chilled out listening to music and chatting as I had over an hour until I ran. My warming up went well and I felt prepared on the start line. The first control went well. After that I threw away two minutes on number 2. My bearing was rushed and my distance judgement poor, I paid the price. After that I pushed hard but struggled to interpret the 2.5 metre contours in low visibility vegetation and lost a bit more time. At the finish I was bitterly disappointed. I hadn’t been in control and lost contact with the map several times. I was surprised to finish 14th, evidently others had come up against the same challenges. I was also second counter for the England M1 select boy’s team. It was great to watch Dane Blomquist a member of the England Team collect his gold medal. He had a great race and came joint first, with a top quality Swedish runner.

After a disappointing middle distance race I was looking forward to the long. I enjoyed the ‘Cultural’ rest day on which we visited a typical Portuguese town but couldn’t wait to race again.  The open hillside of Santa Rita wasn’t so dissimilar to some British areas and I knew it would play to my strengths. I wanted to have a clean run and stay in control. I started well and was pleased with my execution of the long leg. I lost a bit of time going to 8 but continued to attack the physical terrain and spiked the rest of the controls until 18, where I lost about 30 seconds as I thought I was in the southern re-entrant.  When I finished I was in first place. I knew this wouldn’t stand as I’d made some mistakes and the later start times would provide quicker runs as the vegetation continued to be trampled. I finished in fourth, I am really happy with my position, and satisfied with my run.
After the long distance race we had free afternoon, me and a few other senior boys and our coach went for a short recovery run along the sea front, stopping to cool off in the beach showers! After that we chilled out for a few hours in our room and by the hotels swimming pool.
The Last race was the friendship relay, after finding my team mates a Slovenian boy and a Spanish girl we collected our maps and worked out who would get which controls. The friendship relay is basically a fun team score event to round off the week. There are 3 compulsory controls that all team members must visit, at the same time.  The rest can be divided, with the best runner going for the most or all the further controls. Teams are decided, based on performance in the individual races, to create even teams. In order to do well good planning is essential, with everyone collecting enough controls to converge at the compulsory controls at the same time to reduce waiting times. I was blessed with team mates whose English was particularly good which helped… a lot. We finished in the top 40 out of over 150 teams an improvement on my place in World Schools 2011 Friendship Relay. Great Fun!
That evening team medals were presented at the closing ceremony. Many English Teams were on the podium with The Junior Boys Select claiming Gold. The senior boys myself included, had clinched 2nd place under a minute behind the leading Slovakian team. It was amazing going up as a group, and it felt great to earn our great coach Ben Chesters a medal, for all the hard work he had put in throughout the week. After the closing party, and saying good bye to our everyone, (this included sneaking out at three in the morning to send off our Latvian friends from the balcony below, who were getting an early flight) we headed to bed.
I thoroughly enjoyed the week and would like to thank all the English coaches, particularly Dave the head of delegation and also our team coach Ben. I would also like to thank the Jack Bloor fund who continue to support my orienteering endeavours, and also the British Orienteering Support Fund whose money allowed me to travel to, and train in some appropriate sand dunes areas prior to the competition.
Joe Woodley
(Airienteers)

World Schools Orienteering Championships-Portugal April 2013

After a qualifying event in November 2012 I was selected to run in the world schools orienteering championships along with 4 other girls my age, in a squad of 40 from England.
There were 21 countries from all around the world, including New Zealand, China and Mozambique: with a total of 533 participants.
Like the Olympics, there was an opening and closing ceremony which both had amazing atmospheres, with lots of dancing, singing and gymnastics. All the teams paraded through the streets of Castro Marim, to the sports stadium, dressed in their country’s team colours – an amazing sight.
There were two competitive events, with training and friendship events as well.
On the Tuesday there was a model event (training) which gave us an idea of what the terrain would be like and also let us get used to running in the heat-25 degrees plus.
Wednesday was the day of the middle distance event (2.5k with 30m climb). It was held on the sand dunes close to the hotel, so it was really tiring to run on. I made one big navigational error which cost me 7.20 minutes and therefore I came 22nd out of 51, in a time of 26.52 minutes – 7.44 minutes behind the winner. Even though it wasn’t a great race it was still very enjoyable as the finish was on the beach.
After a rest day – spent sightseeing – there was the long distance race (4.3k with 260m climb.)The terrain this time was open hillside covered with gorse bushes, so it was very tough (and painful) to run through. I had a really good race, with no major mistakes so I was hoping that I would do well. When I finished my run I was very pleased to see that I was 5th, but nervous that I might move down the order when more people finished. However, once everyone had completed the course, I was extremely happy to see that I had stayed in 5th and therefore I had managed a podium place, receiving a certificate and sunflower posy.
My individual running times contributed towards our team result: our team came 4th   with a total time of 4hrs 56seconds, just missing the podium by 52 seconds over the two days!
The final race was the friendship relay, held around the town of Castro Marim. All 500+ participants were randomly put into teams of 3: My team mates were from Portugal and Belgium – Flanders. The challenge was to agree who would run to each of the orienteering controls, whilst all meeting up at three set controls. Fortunately my team all spoke good enough English to get by, but trying to meet up at the set controls with 500 other people, all shouting their own team mates names, was chaotic but great fun.
The week was absolutely amazing which I will definitely remember for the rest of my life.

Pippa Dakin

On 6-10 August 2012 I went on a performance climbing course partly funded by the Jack Bloor Fund. The course was held at the Plas y Brenin Centre in North Wales which is the national mountain centre. This centre is used by many people of all ages and abilities for numerous outside activities.
On the course I was instructed by some of the best coaches in Britain to teach me how to lead outside: traditional, sport, sea cliff and multi-pitch. On Day 1 we climbed bolted limestone around the A55 area. The next day it was at Tremadog – a BMC owned crag great for longer climbs and classic routes. Day 3 was in the slate quarries at Llanberis. Day 4 was at the breathtaking sea- cliffs at Gogarth, making it a very exhilarating experience. Finally, Day 5 was in the Llanberis pass where I put the teaching into practice and led my first traditional multi-pitch.
The course had finished on a high. It had been a great success, having not only a great time but learning many things as well.
Since then I have put into practise what I have learnt by leading trad routes in the Peak District. I am also going to Kalymnos in October half term for some sports climbing and looking forward to the winter comp season indoors.
Here are some pictures of me climbing indoors (at the foundry climbing centre) because there was too much going on at PYB to take pictures. There are also some pictures of Gogarth to make people want to go outside.

From the 28/07 to the 04/08 I went on a residential to Outward Bound Ullswater, I initially did it as my Duke of Edinburgh award scheme requires me to go on a residential. I first found an advert for the Jack Bloor fund in the Fellrunner, this encouraged me to apply for the money whilst helping to make up the money through fund raising.
The residential allowed me to gain confidence along with leadership and communication skills, it added to my Duke of Edinburgh experience and I made friends for life. My experience at Ullswater Outward Bound will stay with me for life and I couldn’t have been able to do it without the help of the Jack Bloor fund.

Thank you
Annie Roberts

Junior World Orienteering Champs                Florence Haines
On the 6th of July I flew out to Slovakia with the rest of the Great Britain team for a week in Košice. After a hot sleep we went to the long model training. I found this really useful because the terrain was so different to anything in the UK and my only experience was in Slovenia last summer. It was also good to see what it was like trying to run in the intense heat, around 35 degrees!! Thankfully it cooled down throughout the week and we even had some rain!
Sunday was the first race – the sprint! Having not run on hard surfaces for months due to injury I was worried the sprint may bring back knee pain but there was no pain, a good start! Warming up it was very hot! Unfortunately there was not GPS tracking which I had been looking forward to using. However there were electronic timed start and finish gated which gave some entertaining dives over the finish line! My run was technically near perfect but as you can see from the map extract, it wasn’t hard! Disappointing that a potentially good area ended up with such a runner’s course.  83rd.
Long distance on Monday. Was really looking to this race and lots of race prep with the rest of the team the night before left everyone feeling confident. A long run through at about -6 gave me a lot of time for my brain to start shouting ‘your about to start THE JWOC long!’ but I focused and was shortly on my way to no.1. It wasn’t long until I was climbing out of 2 and thinking ‘am I really walking in a JWOC race?!’ but yes I was! I was the same for everyone, it was a pretty steep hill. I had 2 big mistakes- the route choice leg to 4 where I didn’t pick the best route or execute my route well and 8 where I struggled to find a way from the open back into the wood and overcomplicated it. Together this was over 7 minutes lost. Nice to think with a good run I could have easily got on the podium but it’s never that easy!  21st. Huge well done to team mate Lucy Butt who came 7th, the best GB performance of the week.
We then had a deserved rest day, where a few of us went training for the Middle. Minus getting lost trying to find the start (we were off the map and the tapes ran out!) it went well, lovely open forest with intricate contour detail. We then joined everyone and went for a picnic by a lake with the supporters.
Next was the Middle Qualifier. Having never run a qualifying race before I was a bit nervous. I shouldn’t have been. The difference of this race from any other is that you start along side 2 other runners (in different heats). I made a mistake which I cant remember doing since I was very little! I lost over 5 minutes on no.1! I can’t give a specific reason why this happened, I don’t really know myself! This meant however hard I tried, my head was down. I did have a really smooth section from 2 through to 9 where I had two 3rd and two 5th  fastest splits. This didn’t last and I was losing time all over the place. I didn’t qualify and was very disappointed.  The whole day was an experience I don’t wish to repeat but one which I learnt a lot from. 29th.
Middle final. I was in the B final and found it hard to pick myself up from the previous day and find motivation. The area needed aggressive running and fast navigation which I lacked. My run was nothing amazing/nothing disastrous. 20th.
Final day of competition bought the relay. I was moved up from the 2nd team to the first team only a few days previous but knew my team mates well and knew we had the potential to do well. Lucy Butt gave us a good start coming in 18th, only 30 seconds off 6th! Before I knew it I was racing up and down the slopes, gaining places in rocky sections where other teams seemed to struggle. I made a few mistakes but kept my head through spectator and through the final loop. I will never forget what came next. The hardest, steepest, longest last 2 controls and run in I hope to ever experience! I pushed too early (thinking I felt better than my legs actually did!) and lost around 4 places on the run in and was extremely relieved when I could stop. 12th only 45seconds off 6th! Anchor leg was left to Charlotte Watson. She did an amazing job and went through the 2nd radio control in 6th! The uphill finished challenged everyone and although charlotte didn’t lose any positions, she didn’t gain any no matter how hard and Lucy I shouted! 10th only 28 seconds off 5th place and 9th country. This result proves that there is a lot of potential in this team and I really hope I can be part of it next year!
The evening was at the JWOC banquet with everyone where I met loads of new friends and had a really good time. I would like to thanks to the Jack Bloor Fund who helped me go to this fantastic competition.

Lagganlia Tour of 2012

Lagganlia was an exciting orienteering training week for M14s selected from throughout Britain. We had experienced coaches who had competed at the top level in orienteering so there was a lot of great advice for us to learn from. My two coaches were Jonny and Rodger and I learned masses from them. The main thing that stands out from all the things I learned is simplification and running on bearings. Simplification is where you create attack points and pick out and only use the features that you need. It was really useful learning to run on a rough bearing while looking ahead rather than stopping to look at my compass.

I travelled to Lagganlia after I had completed four days of the Welsh six day. The Welsh six day was fantastic and left me excited about the opportunity to improve my orienteering skills. I think it was a good idea to have done some orienteering before the camp because it got me in the right frame of mind. To reach Lagganlia I caught a train to Aviemore from Ilkley, changing at Edinburgh.  I had arranged to meet Aiden Rigby at Edinburgh, with whom I was to be sharing a dorm, but in the end there were a number of us who met on the train, all excited at the prospect of a week away training together.

Lagganlia started with everybody getting to know each other by doing a memory game. In the game, people said their name as well as a job (like Ruaridh the runner) and then everyone had to remember all of the names. On the first three days we had great fun doing a variety of different exercises and fantastic relays. The exercise included things like concentration exercises on a relatively easy course with a lot of turns. We had coaches distracting us in the concentration exercises by various means (e.g. shouting at us to run faster or telling us ‘this way’ when it was the wrong direction). Of the relays, one of my favourites was the odds and evens relay where there were two maps and three people in a team. Each team needed to complete both courses but with only two people out on the course at the same time. My team (Aidan and Louise) won so I was happy!

After each day of training we went back to the centre for delicious food that everybody enjoyed and we could relax watching T.V., we’d also have a talk in the evening about that day and the following day’s activities. I like to eat a lot of food so was very happy with all of the meals and snacks that the cooks had made. We had cereal for breakfast and then packed lunches when we were out training. In the evening we had a lovely evening meal.

Wednesday was our first opportunity to show off our new skills such as simplification, attack points, bearings, pacing etc. in competition. We did two sprint races, one in a forest/urban area and the other one purely urban. I had two nightmare runs but enjoyed them both, apart from one time on the second map where I found myself on the opposite side of the map!! The small 1: 1500 scale didn’t help as I am not used to it – at least, that’s my excuse!! In the afternoon we braved the cold waters of the local loch- some of us lasted longer than others but no one lasted that long because it was freeeezing!!!

On Friday we had a tiring classic race finished off with some fun relays. The classic race had a lot of heather and much opportunity to get lost. I was the only one who enjoyed terrain running that day but I did not enjoy the navigation quite so much. The relay was a lot faster underfoot and the navigation was a lot easier but this made the head to head competitions more fun.

So here’s a quick summary….

Training I enjoyed most: The peg race – this is where on some race controls there are a few pegs for the first people but if you get a peg you must go to the penalty control so any one can win.
Favourite area: Rosalie, it was a wooded sand dune area with a lot of contour detail.
Least favourite: Sprint event 2 it was the only bad area it was just urban around a camp site.
Best food/worst food: My favourite meal was salmon and there were no meals I didn’t like.
Awards: We all got different unusual award at the end of the camp and my award was the “Legit” award as I said that a lot when telling the coaches my plan!

Overall verdict: Lagganlia was a fantastic training week!

I really liked all of my coaches and I am very grateful to them for helping me improve my orienteering. I was really pleased that Nev and Tony selected me for the camp despite having some nightmare orienteering experiences this year. And I’m very grateful to them for all their hard work in putting on a fantastic training camp.

Thank you very much for this great experience. It was a fantastic opportunity that gained me new skills. I greatly appreciate the help that allowed me to have this experience!

European Youth Championships 2012

This year I was selected to represent Great Britain at EYOC, in Bugeat France. Leading up to the event I was excited but also fairly nervous seeing as it was my first international competition for GB.
On the day the rest of the team were travelling by Euro-star from London, I had a GCSE technology exam, so after sitting that at 7 in the morning I grabbed my things and headed for Leeds Bradford Airport. Training had taken precedent over revision for that particular exam so I was glad when it was over. Will Rigg another team member was in the same position so I met him in the airport. On the plane we decided to do some geeking exercises; looking at old maps and planning courses, we then discussed route choice. On arrival in Limoges, France we stepped out of the airport into 36 degree heat. In contrast to Leeds I was wondering if I would be able to run in this sort of heat. We then met the rest of the team and after collecting hire cars headed for Bugeat. After some appalling navigation, (getting it out of my system before racing…) we arrived at the event centre.
Instead of staying in the hotel with most of the other nations GB ended up staying a 15 minute walk away in some wooden chalets’ in the woods,  Which we quickly downgraded to shacks.  No more than 5 metres wide by 3 metres long, containing 4 beds, a small stove, fridge and 4 teenage boys. Within minutes our shack was a stinking mess. With energy drinks, recovery shakes, pasta packets and pot noodles we managed to generate an obscene amount of rubbish. After Dane Blomquists attempt at pasta I feared the worst but by attacking the mess with a knife and travel wash for clothes we salvaged the cooking pan.
We had one day to acclimatise and train before the competition began and we chose to run on sprint and long model areas. This was a good way to see how the vegetation and certain features were mapped. We ended the day swimming in a river to cool off.  That evening Jackie Newton, one of our coaches led a team stretching session and then we got to bed early ahead of the sprint race.
I had to wear GPS trac-trac unit on the sprint. I was informed it would be just like wearing a sports bra… Naturally a very useful bit of advice. When we arrived at quarantine (pre race area with no contact to finish arena etc) I collected my trac-trac unit and chilled out for a while as I was in GBR’s 3rd start block. Chris Galloway an M18 had raced at EYOC before and it was nice to talk to him as he had experienced this last year. I then started warming up before heading to the -8 call up. The start blocks lead you about 500metres from quarantine into a court yard at -2. You then headed through an undercover area and came up into the arena. This was pretty good at throwing all your focus as you were suddenly blinded by the sunlight and hit by the noise from the arena with people cheering you on. I had a good clean race and pushed quite hard in places but always stayed in control. I finished 21st and 1st British boy, considering my previous sprint pedigree I was really happy with the result.
I wanted a top 15 place in the long distance and was really looking forward to it. My race went well and I didn’t make any big mistakes but at times I was slightly hesitant and lost time over complicating some legs. It was also very physical but I was happy with 16th place, well done to Dane who came 7th on my course. Both my sprint and long distance results were good and are a good platform to work from on the International level. That evening there was the EYOC party which was a good laugh and opportunity to socialize with people from other nations.
The last day was a relay and my team consisted of Dane, then me, then Sasha Chepelin. We knew we were a strong team and could really perform well.  On first leg Dane had a great run bringing us back in 3rd with the leading group. There was a long run out to the start kite and it gave me a good chance to read my map. My first leg was long and very steep leading me to the top of a hill. After that the course took me over the other side of the hill and by then the relay gaffling meant I had no idea where my competition was. After a little mistake I caught a Polish runner and ran through the spectator control with him. The second half of the course was on another large hill although this time it was very rocky and entirely covered in low visibility trees mapped as dark and light green woodland. I pushed through the physical terrain whilst spiking all the controls and ended up running on to the run in with the Polish runner 20 metres behind. As I came in I heard my team mate Dane shouting that I was leading the race! I was really pleased and quite surprised to find out I had handed over to our last leg runner in first place. After a nervous wait Sasha came through spectator still leading with the Polish last leg runner. Unfortunately he messed up the last loop and lost a lot of time. We finished 7th. I was gutted but 7th is still a good result and Sasha had done well to hold off two European Champions up until his mistake.
I had a great trip and have come away very inspired to continue to train hard and work towards becoming the best possible orienteer that I can be. I not only enjoyed racing but meeting people from around Europe and having a great time with the Great British Team. I would like to thank our coaches, Chris for his technical advice, Liz for her organization and general hard work as team manager and most of all Jackie for putting up with the M16 boys in her car, although I think she secretly loved our music choice and banter. Also thank you to Airienteers and The Jack Bloor fund who helped to fund my trip.
By Joe Woodley