COFFS Harbour’s Sam Woolford has been selected to represent Australia at the Junior World Orienteering Championships to be held in Portugal in July.

The 18-year-old was selected to the junior national team after finishing third in the junior men’s division of the National Orienteering League, in which he also helped NSW win the overall title.

Woolford will be making his Australian debut in Portugal as he takes on the best young orienteers in the world.

His Australian selection comes on the back of a strong year in which he finished fourth in last year’s National Orienteering League Season, and second in the Australian 3 Days event in April.

Before he heads to Portugal, Woolford will be competing at the European Junior and Youth Orienteering Championships in Hungary as he prepares for the Junior World Orienteering Championships.

The Australian representative was looking forward to testing his skills on the world stage in Portugal.

“I’m very excited and it’s going to be very fun, and apparently the terrain is a lot similar to Australia rather than other European countries,” he said.

“I’m hoping it will be similar when I pick up the map.”

The new Australian representative explained what it took to make a top orienteer.

“Someone who can navigate while running at speed, and it’s a sport which takes a lot of practice,” he said.

“I do a lot of running in training, then I look at old maps and sample maps and I do the course in my head and visualise what I think it will look like,

“I go for a run with the map to navigate where I’m going.”

Woolford identified the hardest part of his chosen sport.

“Probably the navigation part is the hardest, as a navigator with a map who walks will beat a runner without a map,” he said.

“So I’d say navigating is more difficult.”

By Aiden BURGESS