We caught up with a third orienteer who has also been selected to represent Aotearoa at the 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain. 

Bronwen Rees-Jones is a passionate orienteer and runner from Waikato who recently embraced a new challenge – competing in the New Zealand Mountain Running Championships that were held in April. Despite being new to mountain running, Bronwen drew on her solid foundation in track and cross country, becoming the New Zealand Mountain Running Champion for Under 20 women and achieving a well-deserved selection to the New Zealand team for the 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in September.

A six-week training block prior to the Mountain Running Championships was carefully planned by her coach and father, Steve Rees-Jones who happens to be a multiple-time national masters athletics champion and holder of a PhD in Sports Medicine and Exercise Science. Bronwen is also fortunate to have coaching assistance from fellow Cambridge resident Lauren Shelley, who has previously represented Australia in the Marathon at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games.  

While Bronwen’s summers usually focus on the track, this year she shifted toward the trails, incorporating sessions on the Kakepuku Summit Track 33 km from Cambridge. This was combined with hill intervals, gym-based strength training, and mid-distance runs of around 7–8 km with the local Cambridge Athletic & Harrier Club. Her body has adapted well to trail running, and she’s building the strength and resilience needed for steep ascents, descents, and technical terrain. Instead of tracking distance, her hill runs are focusing on steeper terrain, a key shift for mountain trail preparation.

Bronwen is studying the mountain running course in Spain’s Aragonese Pyrenees, near the French border. The route features a steep climb and descent, 2.5 km of mountain trail switchbacks, sections of road, and a flat finish. She’s been exploring the altitude profiles – competing at an altitude of 1500m with around 400m of vertical ascent, and preparing for a different challenge.

Despite this shift in focus, Bronwen has stayed committed to cross country, and is aiming to compete at the upcoming North Island Cross-Country Championships in Taupo and New Zealand Cross-Country Championships in Christchurch, showing strength across many running disciplines.

All this training helps her orienteering, and she participates in as much as she can, recently course planning and setting for her local club in Waikato around the St. Kilda area in Cambridge. In September, we look forward to seeing another orienteer as part of the NZ team trail running in the Canfranc-Pirineos area in Spain.