JWOC 2015: 37 nations entered in Norway

It starts tomorrow and extends until next July 10th the Junior World Orienteering Championship JWOC 2015. With 293 registered athletes, representing 37 nations, this promises to be a high level event in perfect terrains.

The Orienteering at the highest level will base camps in Rauland, Norway, for the Junior World Orienteering Championships JWOC 2015. Throughout this first week of July will be in dispute the world titles of Sprint, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Relay. There are in the competition almost three hundred athletes from countries as diverse as Brazil or South Africa, North Korea or the United States. In a mountainous area, with altitude ranging from 700 meters to 1100 meters, the athletes can expect a forest filled of marshes of all sizes and where the technical skills to read the contours will certainly be decisive in terms of the final results.

The competitive program starts tomorrow with the Sprint taking place in Åmot. Monday and Tuesday are days dedicated to the Middle Distance, first with the qualification and then the final to be played in Krossen, which will attend the 20 top finishers in each of the previous day's heats. On Wednesday, the Championships will take a break to return the next day, in Skisenteret, with the Long Distance. Friday, the last day of the Championships, return to Skisenteret where the Relay will be ran. The detailed program and other relevant information can be found in the Bulletin 4 published by the organization in the event webpage [HERE http://www.porsgrunnol.no/2015jwoc/files/bulletins/JWOC2015_Bulletin_4.pdf].

Major figure of the previous Junior World Championships (Borovets, Bulgaria), where she reached the world titles in Sprint, Middle Distance and Relay and was silver medalist in the Long Distance, the Swedish Sara Hagstrom is the star of these World Championships, in which she will surely fight for the whole titles, a feat never achieved in the Junior World Championships in the 25 editions played previously. Other big names present in Rauland, all medalists in 2014, are the New Zealander Tim Robertson, currently the Sprint World Champion, the Finnish Emmi Jokela, bronze medal in the Long Distance, the Italian Ricardo Scalet, silver medalist in Middle Distance, the Finn Olli Ojanaho and the Swedish Andrea Svensson, bronze medals in the Middle Distance, the Norwegian Heidi Martensson, silver medalist in the Sprint (and Sprint World Champion in 2013) and the Danish Miri Thrane Ødum, bronze medalist in Sprint. Portugal is one of 37 nations present in Rauland, our country being represented by André Esteves, Carolina Delgado, Daniel Catarino and Joana Fernandes.

To know more about JWOC 2015, please see the event's webpage at http://www.jwoc2015.org/.

Joaquim Margarido