Megan Carter Davies Final year as a Junior Orienteer 2016 ...and what a year!

Megan Carter Davies - Congratulations from all at MWOC on a fantastic year - many thanks for this write up which is an inspiration to us all. Wishing you all the best for your Senior Orienteering !

Megan Carter Davies - My Final Year as a Junior – Injury, Junior World Champs and World University Champs

Some of you will know that I fractured my leg in January, after a little let’s-go-climbing-instead-of-revising-for-exams accident. I had to have knee surgery, was on crutches for 2months and missed out on competing at the selection races for the international competitions. But by some miracle, I was able to represent Team GB at both JWOC (Junior World Orienteering Championships) in Switzerland and WUOC (World University Orienteering Championships) in Hungary.

JWOC came first, in July. It was held around Scuol, near St Moritz – a totally beautiful area of mountains that I’d love to go a visit again! I really wasn’t sure what to make of the competition. After seriously intense training in May and June, I was actually feeling fitter than ever and knew I had been orienteering well recently. However I was nervous about racing and was worried about making a big mistake as I usually did in big internationals. I decided that whatever the result was, I wanted to have races I could be proud of (especially since it was my last JWOC) and so I would run at a safe pace for navigating and just focus on finding the controls one at a time.

My first race was the sprint. It started well enough. I almost went from control 4 to 6 but caught myself and went to 5, but made a 15s mistake running to the boys control instead of my own. I managed to get the fastest route, and fastest split, on the long leg to 6. After that I began to tire, probably down to my lack of threshold training, and even though I didn’t get all the fastest routes, I managed to keep it almost clean. I came over the line in 3rd place. For some reason, I didn’t really feel hugely happy - I think I was just too tired and had felt so slow around the last loop. Over the next hour or so I realised I had actually done quite well and was crossing my fingers for a podium position. Sadly it wasn’t to be and I ended up 7th, just 4s off the podium. I was gutted for a few hours but then I realised that actually I didn’t need a certificate or flowers – just to be at JWOC was an achievement for me and 7th in the world was beyond what I had ever expected!

Next up was the Middle qualification 3 days later. I hadn’t done a middle quali before so I was a bit apprehensive about it but looking at the results from the past few years’ qualifications, it seemed that someone could be 5mins off the leader and still qualify fairly comfortably. So I just needed a clean run, checking controls off one at a time. I had actually thought if I take 4s to really read my map properly at every control, over 15 controls that’s 1 minute, which I can easily spare. I did just that and made almost no mistakes, and qualified 3rd in my heat.

The next day was the Middle Final. I was the 9th last starter. I can’t quite remember my thoughts but I think I felt nervous. Obviously I could be in the mix, but equally I could make a big mistake and I was worried about my navigation so, again, just finding the controls was my main focus, and also to enjoy it! I started well. I had a couple of navigational blips on control 5 and 6, losing maybe 50s in total. Then I caught a Danish girl – it felt like she was trying to race me but I continued to concentrate on my own race. At control 11, I admittedly did get distracted by the film cameras and racing, and headed off to 12 without a good plan and I ended up climbing a big cliff, costing me 20s or so (had some bad climbing flashbacks too!). I went through spectator in 6th position and thought to myself, I could get a top 10 here if I make no mistakes. So I kept a cool head, steadily made my way around the last few controls and heard I was in 2nd at the final control! I ran for my life down the run-in with Per Forsberg’s voiceover: “Look at the speeeeed!!” and yes, I really was in 2nd position! I couldn’t believe it! I did get bumped down to 4th but was still immensely happy. I wasn’t tantalisingly close to the medals, plus it was Johanna (who I’d met on our team GB playdate with the Swedes two days before) who got Bronze so I was really happy for her too.

The final race of the week was the relay. I was running 1st leg and my aim was simply to have a clean run to send Sarah out in a good position. So the plan was to go steady but somehow I was already leading after control 1?! Fiona Bunn was also by my side at control 2, both of us feeling super chilled, leading the JWOC relay together! It was great for her to come back 2nd – I was very proud! I lost some time at 6, dropping to 5th place and had a painful stitch in the last loop slowing me down to finish 8th, but I had done my job well enough. Sarah and Julie both had good runs and it was the best thing to see Julie smiling down the run-in to bring us home in 5th. It was such a great feeling for all of us to have had good runs in our last ever JWOC race and to be standing on the podium together as a result!

The whole week was amazing – beautiful mountains everywhere, great orienteering courses and a wonderful support team (in Switzerland and at home!) added to a set of results that I could only dream of. It was a great way to end my junior career.

Then 3 weeks later I was on my next plane… to Hungary!

This time I was flying out with a team made up of 11 other university students from across Britain and our coaches and physio. It was held in Miskolc and we were housed in the university accommodation for the week. Since the World University Championships can have people up to age 28, I was against some big names in the orienteering world, though the depth of the field isn’t as great as WOC. I was unsure about what would be a good ‘placing’ here, so I just aimed to have performances I could be proud of again.

The week began with the Individual Sprint around Lillafured. It was a small village with a hotel and hanging gardens in the middle. My race went fairly well except for one mistake which cost me 30s, but I finished 8th, just 10s behind Charlotte Ward in 7th and 54s off the winner Denisa Kosova, Czech Republic. The highlight of the day was Kris Jones winning the Men’s race by 33s over the next guy! Congrats again Kris!

My focus then turned to the Sprint Relay, 2 days later. Our team of Charlotte, Peter Hodkinson, Kris and I looked really strong on paper. There were several other really strong teams and I genuinely thought that I, being on last leg, would have to fight for our place in the medals. I was really nervous! In fact, I had been nervous/excited about this race for months so I was mentally prepared to race hard and accept the result. But then, as I stepped out into the race arena, all warmed up and waiting for Kris, it emerged that we had a minute lead! My team had done such an amazing job! Charlotte came in with the front pack, Peter brought us up to 1st place, Kris pulled the lead up to a minute. So all there was for me to do was keep it clean, and before I knew it we were down the run-in, fist-pumping the air. It was such an amazing feeling to win as a team; for everyone to have done their job and to be rewarded with the perfect result!

My races were officially over for the week, but I couldn’t go home without trying out the Hungarian forests and local attractions. I really enjoyed running in an adhoc team in the Women’s relay and it was nice to see that I could compete with the seniors in the forest too after coming back 5th on first leg. Following this I had some time with my family and Ben who had come out to spectate, and we went go-karting (super fun – if you’re ever in Miskolc, Avalon park is the place to go!)

I want to thank MWOC for all of the support throughout the years – every experience I’ve had at international competitions and training camps has turned out to be invaluable and I hope you have been able to enjoy my achievements this summer too.