The World Orienteering Championships 2026 was held in Genoa, Italy, at the beginning of July. The international season for the first half of the year was sprint-focussed, so the week consisted of an individual sprint qualifier and final, a knock-out sprint qualifier and finals, and a mixed sprint relay. I was very honoured to be selected and to have the opportunity to run all three of these disciplines.
This year was my first year as a senior, stepping up from the junior competitions, and after a successful domestic season, I secured a spot at WOC, which I was incredibly excited to compete at. Personally, my results throughout the week were not what I really hoped for, perhaps with some pressure and expectations of myself which let me down, but overall I had some great positives, and gained so much racing experience on the highest international stage to take into future WOCs and my development as an orienteer.
The terrain in Italy was incredibly technical, with many tricky route choices and execution challenges throughout the races. These racing challenges were exacerbated by the heat and humidity in Genoa in July, which was very difficult to race in and involved lots of ice and pre-cooling strategies to perform at the best level we could.
Unfortunately, I missed out on qualifying for the individual sprint on the first day due to a big mistake in the second half of the course, where I missed an alleyway and had to run quite far round. I was really gutted about that, but in multi-day race series it is always important to look ahead to the next races.
I was very happy to qualify for the KO finals after my KO qualification race the next day, which placed me 11th in my heat and safely into the quarter final. I had no expectations of myself for my quarter final, as the girls I was running with were world class, but I am proud of putting in the best possible performance I could on the day, unfortunately not making it to the semifinals.
I ran the mixed sprint relay on GBR’s 1st leg, which was one of the most incredible experiences — to stand on the start line and race mass start against the best in the world. I had a great 1st half, but unfortunately a technical issue missing an artificial barrier in the second half meant I lost some time, which cost me a lot of places in the field. I kept pushing to the end to finish my first World Championships.
Whilst I was quite disappointed at the time with my own performances, as they didn’t reflect my potential and the racing shape I had been in all year, I can take so many positives from the week and feel so grateful to be in this position in the first place.
I am especially thankful for the John Taylor Foundation for supporting me throughout this. Competitions and development at an international level could not be done without the kindness and generosity of the fund to help young athletes like myself.
Thank you.
