Three junior Canberra Cockatoos, Tara Melhuish, Zoe Melhuish and Patrick Miller will be competing for Australia in the 2018 Junior World Orienteering Championships in Hungary starting on Monday. The event centre will be at Kecskemét, a city in the central part of Hungary. It is the 8th largest city in the country and the county seat of Bács-Kiskun. Kecskemét was established at the meeting point of a large sandy region and a sandy yellow soil; its elevation is 120 m above sea level.
All forest terrain covers some of the county’s best orienteering sand dune terrain shaped by the wind. This terrain type is very diverse and detailed, even featuring relatively small hills with 10-20 m height difference. The area allows high speed running with its domestic vegetation (technical name: forest steppe), large and small patches of forest interspersed with open grassy fields.
The program of events is:
- Monday 9 July: Long Distance finals with first starts from 5.00 pm (AEST)
- Tuesday 10 July: Sprint Distance finals with first starts from 10.00 pm (AEST)
- Thursday 12 July: Middle Distance heats with first starts from 6.00 pm (AEST)
- Friday 13 July: Middle Distance finals with first starts from 6.00 pm; A Finals from 7.30 pm (AEST)
- Saturday 14 July: Relays: Women’s mass start from 8.00 pm; Men’s mass start 9.15 pm (AEST)
Radio-control split times, GPS tracking of selected competitors and the speakers’ voice will be broadcast online on the event website free of charge.