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.

I was fortunate enough to receive £200 funding to contribute towards the Mountain Leader Training at Plas Y Brenin, an outdoor education centre in North Wales. I made new friends – both human and non-humans – found a new mentor, affirmed my passion for the outdoors and my pursuing of the mountain leader qualification, and I remembered how bloody beautiful North Wales and Eyreri are. I learned about so many lichens and birds!

I came away with a strong sense of my strengths and weaknesses in the training, and a knowledge of what I need to do next before I take my assessment. According to Sam, our course director, I am a people person. I loved the people element of the course. Physically I am pretty capable – fit, strong, flexible, but I do not really play any sport or do too much with it in a competitive sense. I want to use these abilities to support other people in the outdoors, and I think that shined through during my assessment. Just yesterday I was playing volleyball in Cambridge with my friends. My long time friend Fin got really into it – he would usually put himself down when it comes to sports and not give it a go! We also got random kids involved from the park! It was a beautiful day, and I found myself sitting with this thread again: of bringing people together through collective movement and chemistry, no matter
their ‘physical abilities’ – whatever that means.

What’s next for me in regards to the mountain leader qualification is honing my ropework skills and navigation skills. I understand the ropework conceptually, and find it quite extraordinary what one can do with a bit of rope – I just need to make it muscle memory. In terms of navigation skills, I am impressed with myself, as I only picked up a map and compass for the first time in December last year, and was managing to hold my own with ex-military trainees. However, I still need a bit more practice. So, over the next year, once my commitments in Devon finish up with Wildwise, I hope to spend some months living in Scotland and North Wales. I have never been to Scotland!

The bigger picture remains the same. To transform education for young people in Doncaster, in the UK, and across the world. I want to build holistic, sensuous and embodied programmes that celebrate the entire person – their mistakes, their gifts, their passions, their experimentations. Last month I submitted a funding bid to Big Change, and designed my first ever programme ‘FirePath’. I hope to find out in mid-May that I have been shortlisted for the next stage: the pitch!

I managed to make a mentor-like connection with the course director, Sam, a very
experienced and wizened outdoor leader. I got his email, as well as some organisations that offer expenses covered opportunities to ML trainees – I sent emails off to them today!

So, the ML training and the Jack Bloor support has done a lot for me: the fund and training are giving me tangible resources to realise my dreams. I imagine that the qualification will not only increase my skills, but will give my CV respect, and allow me to bridge-build into more traditional worlds who give greater respect and value to formal qualifications. I think for true systems change we need everybody. Nobody can be left behind. And I think that the ML qualification and the JB fund brings people together through a love for the outdoors. God Bless us all.