Junior European Cup 2024: Results and Round up

The GB Juniors are now returning from an exciting few days spent competing at the Junior European Cup 2024!

JEC was held in Austria, with a sprint, a middle and a relay. JEC is a useful competition in our performance programme, providing high-level competition but in a low-pressure setting for junior athletes. This is a great setting for building their international racing experience.

A tough sprint race in wet conditions almost didn’t happen as the area was 1.5m under flood water the week before the race. British athletes performed well, with lots of good navigation happening. In the M/W20 Sprint, our top finishers were Finn Selmer Duguid (26th) and Freya Tryner (22nd). Emma Crawford secured 20th place in the W20 Sprint, and Ben Squire came 43rd in the M20 race.  

The middle race was held on the forested slopes of Vienna’s vineyards, and featured some good route choice options. Ben Squire came in at 22nd and Daisy McNamara finished 33rd in the M/W20 team. In the M/W18's race, Tommy Rollins (17th) and Ruth Gooch (18th) both secured a top 20 finish!

The forest relay was the best area of the weekend, with rapid racing in a large starting field with almost 40 teams in both men’s and women’s races. GBR Team 1 (Ruth Gooch, Scarlett Kelly and Daisy McNamara) finished in 24th place, followed by GBR Team 2 in 26th (Daisy Rennie, Emily Gibbins and Freya Tryner).

Tom Bray, GBR Development Squad coach, said “Our 16 British juniors did very well at JEC. For several it was their international debut, and every one of our athletes had good sections of orienteering and learnt a lot about their racing. Thanks to all our athletes for putting so much positive energy into the group map-geeking sessions before the races, and during the weekend in their racing. Also, a big thanks to our volunteer coaches Paul Taylor, Simon Hunter and Rona Lindsay for all their fantastic efforts.”

Here are the results from the competition:

Sprint results

Middle results

Relay results

Images below are credited to Marina Halmenschlager. L-R: Ben Squire, Daisy May McNamara, Scarlett Kelly, Daisy Rennie, Tommy Rollins ad Finlay McLuckie.