Australia’s only A finalist, Bridget Anderson, achieved a great result to finish 28th in the women’s middle distance race at the Junior World Orienteering Championships.  Anderson started strongly, and was in 20th place only 2 minutes behind at the radio control.  She continued well to be in 23rd place at the pre-warning control, but then lost some time in the final controls.

Scandinavians dominated with Finland’s Venla Niemi winning the women’s race by 34 seconds and there were 3 Swedes in the top 5 on home soil.

It was a similar story in the men’s race with Sweden filling 5 of the top 10 places, including the winner Johan Runesson.

After a disappointing qualification race for the boys, all but Oliver Mitchell were left to fight out the C final.  Of those, Nick Andrewartha (4th) salvaged some pride with a strong run, just three minutes from the lead.  Oscar Phillips (14th) and Lachlan Dow (19th) were within ten minutes of the leader, but the other boys appeared to be saving themselves for the long distance race.

In the B final, Oliver Mitchell (35th) finished  just under nine minutes from the lead.

Rachel Effeney was the best of our girls in the B final, finishing in an impressive 5th place, 3 minutes from the lead.  Aislinn Prendergast (14th) and Krystal Neumann (26th) will also have gained some much needed confidence for the remaining races.