Abingdonian 2018

56 The Abingdonian Orienteering Whilst fully committing to school life and the Cross Country Club, David Bunn has also been training and competing at the highest level in orienteering. The past year has been his busiest season yet, as he starts his transition onto the international stage. David’s goal for the season was to gain selection for the European Youth Orienteering Championships, to be held in Bulgaria at the end of June. Unfortunately, between September and December he was constantly nagged by injuries, which prevented him from building the base fitness he had aimed for. Still, come the selection races in April, a good block of uninterrupted spring training left David feeling in good shape, and he managed to take the third and final spot in the GB team. Come the European Championships, navigational mistakes cost David a good result in the sprint distance (which was held on an abandoned fortress), and again in the long distance he was left frustrated at what could have been. However, in the relay David put any previous performances behind him and executed a strong performance, taking GB from 16th to 12th on the last leg, only a few seconds off a top ten position. If the second leg runner hadn’t lost minutes of time due to getting blinded by a branch to the eye, a podium position may have been on the cards. This season also saw David sign for a Finnish orienteering team, based in Helsinki, and as a result he has raced in the biggest orienteering relay in the world - The Jukola Relay. The seven leg relay starts at 11pm and runs through the night, with most runners wearing head torches to be able to see and read the map in the dark. David ran fifth leg and enjoyed being a part of a race with 18,000 competitors and many more spectators.The event is so big that the forest it was held in became the 13th most populous ‘settlement’ in Finland, for the weekend! For the remainder of the season, David will be spending a lot of time training and racing in Finland, Denmark, Sweden and finally Switzerland in October, where he will make his second appearance for Great Britain. Elliot Birkbeck