The 2014 Junior World Orienteering Championships will be held next week in Bulgaria. The event centre and the location for the relays is Borovets which is Bulgaria’s main ski resort and is 1300m in altitude. The Australian team are currently in a pre-competition camp along with the NZ team undergoing some exercises set up by Rob Jessup the NZ coach.

The Australian team is:

Coach: Hanny Allston

Manager: Karen Blatchford

Women: Nicola Blatchford, Michele Dawson, Anna Dowling, Olivia Sprod, Asha Steer, Lanita Steer.

Men: Matt Doyle, Henry McNulty, Oscar McNulty, Ashley Nankervis, Brodie Nankervis, Oliver Poland.

This year’s Australian team is a mixture of experienced JWOC competitors and those who are experiencing JWOC for the first time.

Oliver Poland is competing at his 5th JWOC, Oscar McNulty at his 4th, Brodie Nankervis and Michele Dawson at their 3rd. Matt Doyle, Nicola Blatchford and Lanita Steer are competing at their second JWOC. The debutants are Anna Dowling, Olivia Sprod, Asha Steer, Henry McNulty and Ashley Nankervis.

JWOC is a little different to WOC in that all team members can compete in all events, so we have six representatives in both the women’s and the men’s events. The events do not include a sprint relay, but there is a qualification event for the middle.

The program for the week is:

Tuesday 22nd July: Sprint– Samokov, mixed urban and park terrain.

Wednesday 23rd July: Long Distance– Malyovitsa, moderately hilly pine forest between 1300m and 1750m altitude.

Friday 25th July: Middle qualification– Zheleznica, hilly terrain between 900m and 1000m altitude.Terrain with many details. The using of magnifier is recommended!

Saturday 26th July: Middle Final– Zheleznica,hilly terrain between 900m and 1000m altitude. Terrain with many details. The using of magnifier is recommended!

Sunday 27th July: Relays– Borovets. Moderately hilly terrain in the forests nearest to Borovets resort. About 1300m altitude.

The well-known elite Bulgarian orienteer Kiril Nikolov will be the course setter for both the Long Distance and the Middle Distance events.

There is no indication on the official website about live results. Bulletin 4 indicates that there will be GPS tracking of 40 athletes in the Sprint, Long and Middle distance events so something may become available.

Event website is

http://www.jwoc2014.bg/index.php?name=home*

The Australian team’s blog is being kept up to date with the latest team info

http://ausjuniororienteering.blogspot.it/*

*no longer available