Navigating the right path
They say orienteers run the country and Rory and Euan Shedden have certainly run over a lot of it during 2023 competing in a range of events. The orienteering year commenced for them in January in Tasmania at the Oceania Championships where Euan collected a silver medal in the under 12s and helped the NSW team win gold in the relay while Rory became Oceania Champion with a gold medal in the under 14 competition.
The pair then returned to NSW and over the winter focused on the state based competitions where they both won the state championships for their age groups after 15 events spread all around the state.
On the back of this success Rory was selected for the NSW squad to compete in the Australian Championships in WA in October. Spending a week living in camp with the rest of the NSW squad and competing in 7 different orienteering events over 9 days was challenging yet rewarding experience. Running against under 16s Rory ran extremely well with the highlight being the relay where he ran the first leg in complex granite and forest terrain and helped NSW to a 2nd place ensuring NSW retained the trophy for the overall best state!
Euan ran in his U12 age group at the Australian Championships and picked up a gold medal to be crowned Australian Champion and for those who may have seen out training a lot recently he is working hard to try and make the NSW team for 2024 where the Australian Championships are at home for NSW being held in Armidale.
