On Saturday 28 June, more than 350 of the world’s best junior orienteers gathered in Trentino in northern Italy for this year’s Junior World Orienteering Championships, which continues this week. 

There are five races during the championships, the Sprint Relay and Sprint, which were held over the weekend, before the competition moves into the forest where a hilly long will take place today, followed by the Middle and relay after a rest day on Tuesday.  

Sprint Relay

The Sprint relay was the first event, held on Saturday and the courses provided a mix of detailed parkland orienteering and route choices transitioning in and out of the old town of Levico Terme. 

The race was fast and physically challenging, with runners tackling hilly terrain in very high temperatures and our first team of Imogen Pieters, Ben Gostick, James Hammond and Isobel Howard had a great race to finish 7th nation, and just miss a place on the extended podium.  

The second team of Emily Gibbins, Finn Selmer Duguid, Adam Methven and Emily Atkinson also showed the teams depth by finishing in 11th.  

James Hammond said following his race “I am very happy with how it went today. We all came and did our four solid runs which we set out to do and got a good result for it. My strategy was to push myself at the star and then push harder on the last loop in the park and this tactic paid off well. I made a couple of small mistakes but was able to keep the pace high and catch up some time in the end which gave me a positive feeling at the finish”. 

Isobel Howard was also happy with the team’s result, “I think it was a good challenge, very enjoyable, very hard work and I think we can be happy with our results”.  

Sprint Relay Results

Sprint

On Sunday the team lined up for the start of the Individual sprint, where they faced another warm race day, in the small picturesque Dolomite town of Cembra. It was a great day for GB with James Hammond taking 4th placed and just five seconds off the medals. 

In the women’s race a really impressive run from the youngest member of the team, Emily Atkinson saw her finish 15th on her JWOC Debut.  

When asked about her race Emily said “I was really happy with my performance! The sprint was fun and technical and you can never beat having some nice artificial barriers to have to navigate around!” 

James also commented “I was really happy with my run today. It wasn’t perfect but it goes to show that you can do well without being perfect! It’s given me lots of confidence that I am in good shape and I will be taking that into the rest of the week. Go GB! 

Sprint Results

Sprint Results

Long 

Earlier in the week the athletes said goodbye to the sprint disciplines and started the forest distances. 

On Tuesday a tough long-distance race awaited the athletes, 8km with 410 meters of climb for the women and 10km with 500m of climb for the men. As the event was held at slightly higher altitudes the temperature was slightly cooler, but still another warm day in the mountains and some very detailed mine workings for the athletes to contend with.  

A super smooth run from Finn Selmer-Duguid saw him finish in 14th place, with James Hammond just behind him in 16th. 

Finn said following the event “My run was very good. I’m delighted with it and the result. I kept my head well and managed to really focus on the nav, for me the key to success was to know when to slow down and when to speed up and also to choose a viable route choice for every control that may not have been the fastest but it was safe” 

In the Womens event Imogen Pieters was 42nd with Isobel Howard right behind in 43rd place.

Long results

Long Results

Middle

Following a rest day on Wednesday the athletes returned back to the forest for the last Individual race day. The area round the Laghestel Biotope near Baselga di Piné set the stage for a demanding middle distance race in the dense and technical terrain. 

James Hammond had another solid race to finish just outside the top 10, with Adam Methven not too far behind in 28th. 

In the Womens race, Isobel Howard made a really strong start to her race, staying close to the top 10, but a decision towards the end of her race put her further down the field to be the first British athlete home in 30th with Imogen Pieters in 36th. 

Middle results

Middle results

Relay

Today was the final day of competition, where the athletes lined up for the forest relays. The GB Mens 1st team of Finn Selmer Duguid, Adam Methven and James Hammond put in a solid performance to finish 10th nation, with the men’s second team of Tommy Rollins, Ben Gostick and Finlay McLuckie in 25th. 

In the Womens the GB 1 of Emily Atkinson, Imogen Pieters and Isobel Howard were 9th nation and the GB2 of Ruth Gooch, Emily Gibbins and Freya Tryner were 22nd.  

Some of the athletes will now return home to recover from the demanding week of racing, before heading back out to compete at EYOC which starts in a few weeks, with the focus back onto the senior team as the head out to the World Championships in Finland, which starts next week.  

Relay results