Dear ASPECT,
The grant that you have provided me with is very much appreciated by both myself and my parents. All financial help counts towards taking the pressure off of myself as a full-time university student and my parents who have their own work and my two younger brothers to look after.
Overall the trip was a very eye-opening experience both in terms of seeing a completely different part of the world and experiencing orienteering competition at an international level. With over 300 competitors the Junior World Orienteering Championships are a fairly large event. There were 170 male competitors in the 5 races that I competed in, my best result was 96th in the Long distance race (roughly 10km with 650 metres climb). I was hoping to achieve a placing in the top 50% of the field in at least one the races, which I missed out on. The European competitors are incredibly strong and I underestimated the physicality of the terrain we were racing in. Now that I know what is required to be competitive at an international level I can build on this for potential future events.
I am very grateful and feel extremely lucky to have had this opportunity.
Thank you very much for the sponsorship provided that helped make this trip possible.