I would once again like to emphasise my upmost gratitude to the JTF for supporting me with the grant to enable me to travel out to Rauland in preparation for the Junior World Championships; it made a huge difference.
The trip was a great success in itself and provided invaluable experience for the forthcoming Championships. A team of three athletes (Chris Galloway, Julie Emmerson and myself) and our Junior Team Coach (Mark Nixon) flew out to Oslo Rygge on the 7th of June. Nixon and I travelled from Edinburgh to meet up with Chris and Julie who were competing at the WC round in Munkedal, Sweden. Whilst they were competing, Nixon and I entered the spectator race and finished 2nd and 1st respectively, a result I won’t let him forget. (One of the very few times I’ve beaten Nixon, I probably won’t see that day again for a few years). We then took the long journey up to Rauland and arrived late at night after a few unexpected issues (i.e. leaving our bags back at the event centre…) Luckily all the snow had cleared which was a relief after seeing tweets from the French team from the previous week who had to train in knee deep snow for a whole week.
We had an excellent training package delivered by the JWOC organisers as well as some great exercises planned by Mark. On average we would train twice a day as well as some extra strength training back at the huts. The accommodation was great and had a Ski Chalet like feel to them, we enjoyed some movies and post training analysis in our free time along with heaps of pasta to fuel us through the week. The training all went to plan and by the end of the week we all felt comfortable with the Mountainous Norwegian terrain and the quad sapping marshes! From here we went our separate ways; Mark and Chris went home to Edinburgh and Julie and I ventured on to Finland to take part in the biggest Relay in Orienteering: Jukola! This was an awesome experience. I had a steady performance and managed to pick up some places for the EUOC 1st team; a great way to end a great trip, I’ll certainly be back again, that’s for sure!
JWOC was a great learning experience for me, my first real taste of World Class competition, EYOC is also be a great international event but the Junior World Champs are on another level. Unfortunately I just missed out on qualification for the A final after some silly mistakes but finished 10th in the B final after a solid run. I just wish I could have had this form in the qualification round, but there is always next year and I am determined to better myself for when the opportunity arises. The long was a solid result for me but nothing special (56th) I had a technically very clean race but my body was just not cooperating and I could never push myself to race pace. In the Relay, unfortunately our first leg had a bad start and came back some minutes down, I then managed not to lose too much time to the other boys but my body was still not 100% and this makes me question if I was a little bit ill in the last two days of JWOC. My results at JWOC did nothing but fuel my motivation for the coming season. Currently I’ve been having the best winters training for me ever; no injuries and just as importantly staying healthy and no illnesses so far. I’m really excited about what the next season will bring and would once again like to thank the John Taylor Foundation for their continuing support.