Aston Key has been named as Orienteering Australia’s Athlete of the Year for 2019.

In July, he became the second Australian to win a gold medal at the Junior World Orienteering Championships when he won the sprint event in Denmark. He followed this up with a bronze medal in the long distance, and a fifth place in the middle distance. Whilst his JWOC results were the highlight of his year, he also had numerous significant achievements in 2019 at senior level, including becoming the Oceania middle distance champion in October, and later that month placing 21st in the World Cup final in China, the best Australian World Cup result since 2015. This followed his senior World Championship debut in 2018.

It remains to be seen whether Aston gets the opportunity to defend his title later in 2020, with the future of this year’s international events program still under a cloud, but his results have already stamped him as an exceptional talent with an exciting future.