The Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) bring more than 160 women and 180 men from 41 nations in classes M20 and W20 to Silkeborg and Aarhus, two places in Jutland (western Denmark) that were venues for the World Championships in 2006. JWOC runs from Saturday 6 July until the following Friday.
Many of the athletes have already familiarised themselves with the hilly forests in training camps and test races. They will be faced with some of the best terrain in the region, some of it rarely used for orienteering. But the start of JWOC is an Opening Ceremony in Silkeborg town square on Saturday at lunchtime, complete with jazz band that will already have been playing for the locals and tourists. The Sprint is the following day in Lyseng, an outer suburb of Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city.
Next comes the Long distance race, to be held in a forest with many big spurs and re-entrants, used for JWOC when it was held in Denmark in 1995. Maybe one or two of this year’s team leaders will have competed there? A rest day is followed by the Middle Qualification and Final on successive days in Gjern Bakker, used in WOC 2006 for the Middle Final and the forest where the first-ever computer-drawn map was used at international level, in a World Cup race in 1990. ‘Bakker’ means hills, and this area lives up to its name!
The final race of JWOC is the Relay, always highly anticipated and this year held on a rarely used high-quality area, Thorsø Bakker, close to Silkeborg. It is known, however, that the area staged a 5-nations event as far back as 1970, on a 1:20,000 map. Again here, no shortage of hills!
At JWOC there is always emphasis on the social elements of competition and 2019 is no exception. Most teams are staying in a Technical School and will have all their main meals there, and a programme of non-orienteering activities is planned for the rest day.
For more information, visit the website www.jwoc20129.dk, where all the detail is in Bulletin 4. Reports and leading results will be posted on this website after each race.
Race Programme
Sunday 7 July Sprint, Lyseng, Aarhus
Monday 8 July Long distance, Velling-Snabegård
Wednesday 10 July Middle Qualification, Gjern Bakker
Thursday 11 July Middle Final, Gjern Bakker
Friday 12 July Relay, Thorsø Bakker