JWOC 2012Košice, Slovakia, 7-13 July
ESOC junior Rona Lindsay competed for GB at the Junior World Orienteering Championships.
JWOC 2012 was based in the eastern Slovakian steel town of Košice. There were 6 boys and 6 girls in the team, and they competed in all four disciplines: Sprint, Middle, Long and Relay. Temperatures were in the low to mid 30s, somewhat warmer than the GB team are used to!
Sprint
The sprint event was on Sunday 8 July in Košice city centre. Rona came 58th, out of 134 (plus 5 disqualifications) - she was 2:40 behind the runaway winner, Tove Alexandersson (SWE), who won by a huge margin of 32 seconds.
Long Distance
The Long Distance event was on Monday 9 July, 80km S of Košice, on the Silica-Silická plateau, in karst terrain with many large depressions. Rona had a solid run, and came 53rd, out of 130 (plus 9 disqualifications). Team-mate Lucy Butt came 7th, just missing the podium, and the sprint winner was again well in the lead, but made a big mistake at the 10th control and came 22nd.
Middle Distance
The Middle Distance qualifier was on Wednesday 11 July, at Herlany, 30km NE of Košice - there were 3 parallel heats, with the first 20 from each qualifying for the A final. Despite being stung by a wasp at the pre-start, Rona ran well enough to go through to the A final, coming 19th out of 47.
The final was on Thursday 12 July, at Izra, 40km to the SE of Košice. Rona had a good run and came 29th in the A final (2nd of the 3 GB women in that final), on a technical course which punished any mistakes.
Both of the Middle Distance areas have deciduous woodland with steep slopes, intricate terrain and marshes.
Relay
The relay was on Friday 13 July, at Jahodná, 15 km N of Košice. The terrain is described as typical central European terrain, varied with a lot of steep slopes and erosion gullies, some stony ground and marshes. Rona was disappointed in her run today - she took over from Katrin Harding in 31st place, made a big mistake, and lost a few places. Zoe Harding ran the final leg and brought the GBR 2 women’s team up to 30th position overall. The GBR 1 women’s team came 9th overall.
Further details, photos and full results are available on the JWOC 2012 website.
There are also some interesting reports on the British Orienteering website:
Sprint event
Long event
Middle qualifier
Middle final
Relay
Crawford Lindsay
Club Captain
First posted 8 July 2012
Other entries categorised under: Juniors - Event Reports