Last month Brodie sat down with Nea Shingler, fresh off her selection in the 2023 Junior World Championships team! Nea is a well-known in the Australian elite field with impressive junior and senior results over the past few years. Nea debuted at both Junior and Senior World Championships in 2022 and is the youngest member of the OA High Performance squad. Nea is about to fly to Europe to prepare for JWOC in Romania and Brodie was keen to find out about her international plans this year and into the future!
Hi Nea, it’s been a busy year so far and it’s only just getting started! Tell us about how the year has gone so far for you?
It’s been a bit mixed so far, my sprint events have gone well; Oceania, Sydney Sprint Weekend (if you forget about my mispunch in the Knockout Semi-finish) and the Easter prologue. On the other hand, the NOL bush events haven’t been quite as successful with what would have been a good run ruined by a couple of, sometimes, sizeable errors – definitely something for me to work on.
Definitely some great sprint races and it’s good to be able to identify some things to work on! After Easter you attended the OA High Performance camp, can you tell us about what you got up to there?
Along with some analysis of Easter, we looked at some of the upcoming WOC terrains and maps, having a chat about how/what to prepare for. We then did a maximal aerobic test (VO2 max) which involved running on a treadmill, functional movement screening and lastly some cognitive testing. The camp was a lot of fun and it will be very interesting to see the results and feedback.
Fantastic, sounds like you will get some useful information out of it. And now you are about to head to Europe, what are your plans in the lead up to JWOC in Romania?
I am planning to go to the JWOC training camp in Romania at the start of May, the forests look fast and open which hopefully will suit me (famous last words). After that the Helsinki O games, Venla/Jukola, EYOC, finally JWOC and in between the orienteering I will be visiting family.
Exciting times, great to hear you will have some time to prepare for JWOC with specific training and some high level races. What’s in store for the future, any big goals for the next few years?
I would say just building up my orienteering experience, hopefully going to as many international competitions as I can this year and, if everything goes to plan, be selected for the 2024 Sprint WOC in Edinburgh, along with JWOC in Czechia.
What about outside of orienteering, what’s in store next for you?
I’m taking a gap year this year and am working until I fly out at the end of April. As for next year, I am planning to go to uni, just not sure what I’m going to do or where!
Alright, let’s move into some quickfire questions:
Best event you have ever been to? Best map?
The best bush event I’ve been to would have to be O-France 2019 in the southern Alps when we had to catch a chairlift up to the arena and the best sprint would have been the last year’s WOC Sprint Relay in Denmark, it was just so surreal lining for the first leg up with all the big names.
Any events, races or maps you would love to do?
Jukola and Oringen, which I will hopefully experience this year!
Compass in left or right hand?
Left
Favourite food?
That’s a very tough question, I would have to say Pizza but pre-race definitely vegemite on toast!
Best training session?
My favourite training session would have to be mum’s Thursday night intervals. We have a big group that comes along, which makes it a lot of fun, with a variety of different loops so the session can be adapted for the next event. I also enjoy the park we do It at, it’s very versatile, with both hills and flat sections, and different surfaces.
Thanks Nea, anywhere that people can follow your progress?
Strava would be the best place to see my Orienteering progress.
