World Orienteering Day

World Orienteering Day - An update on PGL Sponsored Athlete, Grace Molloy.

The 24th May marks World Orienteering Day, when schools and orienteering clubs from around the world can participate by organising events and activities to promote the sport and encourage more people to try it.

Orienteering is a popular activity at PGL - it's a fun and active way to explore the outdoors and develop key navigational skills in the process.

PGL Sponsored Athlete, Grace Molloy completed her first orienteering event when she was just eight years old. She has been competing at a national level for over three years and she has been selected to represent Great Britain and Scotland at an international level.

Grace talks to us about her aims for the year ahead and her competition progress so far:

"My main aim for 2017 is to be selected to represent Great Britain at the European Youth Championship (EYOC) at under 19 level. This will be held in Slovakia in June. If I make selection I would then like to achieve top 20 positions in both the long and sprint disciplines at this competition.

Selection races
To be selected, I need to perform strongly in the six selection races held between March and May. Great Britain take a team of four girls at U19 level to EYOC so I need to regularly finish in the top 4 in the selection races. These races are also used to select the GB team for the Junior World Championship (JWOC) which is an U21 competition. In the selection races, the U19s and U21s complete the same course so their times can be compared to select six girls to compete at JWOC. So if I do exceptionally well I may be selected for this team despite being only 16.

Five down, one to go
Five of the six selection races have now taken place so I can let you know how I got on.

The first two races were held in the Midlands and included a sprint and a middle-distance race. Going into the races I felt in a good position to perform strongly as I had trained hard over the winter without any major injuries or illnesses so I felt fit and fast. I had also practised my technical skills at minor races and several training camps with the Scottish Squad and British Talent Squad so I hoped this training would pay off in the races.

In the sprint race, held at Warwick University, I ran well and only made a slight error near the end. I was very happy to finish 2nd in the U19 race and 6th U21. The middle race was in Bentley Woods and I had another good race finishing 2nd U19. I was also surprised but very pleased to be 3rd U21.

The next three races were held as part of the JK competition which is the largest annual competition in the UK and attracts around 4000 competitors including many foreign athletes. In the sprint race at Brunel University I didn’t finish thinking I had done well but I was 2nd U19 and 6th U21. The middle race was on Ambersham Common and I had my best race yet - finishing a very close 2nd U19 but beating all the older competitors so I was 2nd U21 too!

I started poorly in the long race in Holmbush Forest but I recovered and again went onto finish 2nd U19 and 2nd U21.

So far so good.
I am delighted with how these races have gone so far and fortunately I now have 3 weeks to recover before the British Long Championship which is the final selection race. I will update you again once I hear selection news after that race!" - Grace Molloy.

We look forward to hearing more from Grace in the future.