The Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) are an annual

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that involve using a map and compass to navigation, navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specia ...

competition. They were first held in 1990. Entry is open to national teams aged 20 and below as of 31 December in the year of competition. Representative countries must be members of the

International Orienteering Federation The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) is the international governing body of the sport of orienteering. The IOF head office is located in Karlstad Municipality, Karlstad, Sweden. The IOF governs four orienteering disciplines: foot orie ...

(IOF).

History

An international junior match was arranged first time in 1983 in Ry, Denmark, and then in 1984 (

Hartberg Hartberg () is a city in Styria, Austria and the district seat of Hartberg-Fürstenfeld District. As of January 1st 2024, it has a population of 6,713 in an area of 21.58 km2. About 68 km up the A2 Autobahn is the large Styrian capital o ...

, Austria) and 1985 ( Font-Romeau, France). From 1986 (in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

, Hungary) the events became the unofficial Junior European Championships, and were held the following years, 1987 (

Ambleside Ambleside is a town in the civil parish of Lakes and the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Westmorland and located in the Lake District National Park, the town sits at the ...

, England), 1988 (

Eupen Eupen (, , ; ; ; former ) is the capital of German-speaking Community of Belgium and is a city and municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Belgium, Belgian Liège Province, province of Liège, from the Germany, German border (Aachen ...

, Belgium) and 1989 ( Seefeld/

Kufstein Kufstein (; ) is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the administrative seat of Kufstein District. With a population of about 20,000 it is the second largest Tyrolean town after the state capital Innsbruck. The greatest landmark is Kufstein For ...

, Austria). From 1990 (

Älvsbyn Älvsbyn (; translating to "the river village") is a locality and the seat of Älvsbyn Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden with 4,967 inhabitants in 2010. It is known as "The Pearl of Norrbotten". Älvsbyn has a railway station that is serv ...

, Sweden), the competition became official Junior World Orienteering Championships.

Current program

Current program (from 2024) includes: *Individual Sprint Event *Sprint Relay *Individual Middle Distance Event *Individual Long Distance Event *Team Relay Originally JWOC started with an Individual (Classic) competition followed by a relay. The Short Distance Championships were added in 1991, which remained until 2004 where the Short Distance became the Middle Distance, falling into line with the

World Orienteering Championships The World Orienteering Championships (often abbreviated as WOC) is an international orienteering competition which has been organized by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) since 1966. The World Orienteering Championships is considere ...

. An unofficial Sprint Race was held in Switzerland in 2005 in conjunction with the PostFinance-Sprin
****PostFinance Sprint****
Shortly following this event the Sprint discipline was added to the program for Lithuania 2006. From 2022 onward the Middle Distance Qualification has been replaced by the Sprint relay discipline with four runners in each team. Two women (1st & 4th leg) and two men (2nd &3rd leg).

Host towns/cities

Individual/Classic/Long

This event was called "Classic distance" from 1991 to 2003, and since 2004 it is called "Long distance".

Men

Women

Short/Middle distance

This event was called "Short distance" from 1991 to 2003. Since 2004 it is called "Middle distance".

Men

Women

Sprint

This event was first held in 2006.

Men

Women

Sprint Relay

Relay

Men

Women

Medal table

Updated after JWOC 2019. The 2006 Junior World Champion in the long distance event for women was

Johanna Allston Johanna "Hanny" Allston (born 12 February 1986) is an Australian orienteer. Johanna Allston, or Hanny Allston as many know her, won the 2006 Junior World Orienteering Championships for the long distance event. She won by a near-record margin ...

(or Hanny Allston) of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It was the first time in this event that a gold medal has been won by a non-

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an nation. Since then, Matt Ogden (2012), Aston Key (2019), and Tim Robertson (2014 and 2015), are the only non-Europeans to win gold medals at the Junior World Championships.

Gallery

Notes

References

{{Orienteering, type=events June in sports July in sports

Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

Recurring sporting events established in 1990

History

Current program

Host towns/cities

Individual/Classic/Long

Men

Women

Short/Middle distance

Men

Women

Sprint

Men

Women

Sprint Relay

Relay

Men

Women

Medal table

Gallery

See also

Notes

References