JWOC26  |  Karlskrona 29 June – 4 July 

Individual Sprint
The Individual Sprint kicked off the 2026 Junior World Orienteering Championships with 338 Athletes lined up along with and 98 team officials from 40 countries. 

It was a sharp-witted start to the first up race. Several runners were caught out by a tricky initial direction decision straight from the start triangle – it was a tough first navigation choice under race pressure and in front of the camera. The course then raced around city blocks on wide streets often using longer route choice legs and alleyways to reach urban parks and courtyards.

NZ’s best result came from Rachel Baker who placed 33rd, just over 1 minute and 44 seconds behind winner Freja Hjerne from Sweden. Jake McLellan and Blake McKinnon were the best NZ male results in equal 43rd place, one minute and 33 seconds behind Matthieu Buehrer from Switzerland.

It was super exciting to see the Southern Hemisphere taking two places on the men’s sprint podium: Australia’s Elye Dent and Cooper Horley placing equal 2nd, just 17 seconds off first place

RESULTS:
33rd Rachel Baker  16:11 (+1:44)
43rd Jake McLellan   15:33 (+1:37)
43rd Blake McKinnon  15:33 (+1:37)
47th Zara Töes 16:33 (+2:06)
68th Thomas Potts  16:06 (+2:10)
73rd Georgia Lindroos  17:11 (+2:44)
77th Sam Carryer  16:23 (+2:27)
86th Phoebe Hunt 17:30 (+3:03)
96th Tide Fa’avae  17:49 (+3:22)
109th Greta Prince 18:44 (+4:17)
126th Matthew Greenwood 17:39 (+3:43)
MP Oscar Burns

Rapid running in the Sprint Relay  

The Sprint Relay course covered some of the same area as the Individual Sprint but with an extension out onto a compact island, where Swedish Maritime history provided a striking backdrop to some seriously fast orienteering. The open urban terrain rewarded bold fast decision-making and speed. 

Oscar Burns summed it up as “Really cool running along the navy base, which gave you plenty of time to plan your route choices and just run fast.” Zara Toes added that there were “Lots of left/right route choices which kept you on your toes and made for an exciting battle with the athletes around you.”

The kiwi team NZ1 gained a placing as 15th nation in the sprint relay, and now the focus is on the long event in beech and conifer forest.

RESULT:

15th NEW ZEALAND 1:  Rachel Baker, Sam Carryer , Jake McLellan , Zara Töes; 57:29 (+4:38)

NEW ZEALAND 2: Georgia Lindroos, Blake Mckinnon, Thomas Potts, Phoebe Hunt; 59:44 (+6:53)

NEW ZEALAND 3: Tide Fa’avae, Oscar Burns, Matthew Greenwood, Greta Prince; 1:01:50 (+8:59)

Long Distance: Top 10 for Rachel Baker, top 30 for Jake McLellan

The NZ team excelled in technical boulder strewn forest terrain in Augerum, Sweden. The NZ athletes were excited to test themselves in physically demanding terrain that rewarded skilled navigation. Greta Prince was the first starter to head out on course, and an early start has its own unique challenges: “The forest was really fast to run through and there were plenty of options which made for some interesting legs, but being one of the first runners does make route finding significantly harder.”

Rachel Baker had a day that pushed her to her absolute limits, but finishing in 10th place was the ultimate reward. Rachel recalls “The course was super technical and really challenged me both physically and mentally. I made a few mistakes but relocated well – I’m absolutely stoked with the result.” Jake McLellan also impressed with his result, securing a top 30 finish, in what was a fiercely competitive field on a challenging course.

RESULTS:

10th Rachel Baker   1:24:56 (+13:45)
29th Jake McLellan  1:30:19 (+15:59)
49th Phoebe Hunt  1:38:33 (+27:22)
64th Tide Fa’avae   1:43:05 (+31:54)
67th Zara Töes  1:43:53 (+32:42)
92nd Blake McKinnon 1:52:08 (+37:48)
87th Greta Prince  1:52:11 (+41:00)
97th Matthew Greenwood 1:55:44 (+41:24)
100th Thomas Potts 1:56:11 (+41:51)
101th Georgia Lindroos  2:00:20 (+49:09)
103th Oscar Burns  2:00:56 (+46:36)
MP  Sam Carryer

Middle distance: Precision for Baker brings 6th and solid finish for McLellan in 14th

A very proud day for the New Zealand team. Rachel Baker’s speed and accuracy on the compass brought a stunning result in the most technically demanding discipline at JWOC. Rachel crossed the finish line just 3 minutes and 32 seconds behind Swedish winner Felicia Persson. Years of dedicated training, in both New Zealand and across the World, paid off for Rachel on a course that was highly technical terrain with subtle contours.

Jake McLellan was once again very impressive, arriving at the finish all smiles and thumbs up in 14th place, just 2 minutes and 6 seconds after Norway’s Sondre Olaussen. Jake was calm, confident and in control most of the way – apart from coming across an extra control in the subtle and challenging terrain.

Phoebe Hunt added a top 50 finish and Blake McKinnon a top 60, rounding out a day of powerful performances from the team.  Oscar Burns described the terrain as brutally physical, with thick blueberry and heather bushes underfoot all on top of very rocky ground.

RESULTS:
6th Rachel Baker 26:14 (+3:32)
14th Jake Mclellan 24:44 (+2:06)
48th Phoebe Hunt 30:29 (+7:47)
59th Blake McKinnon 28:04 (+5:26)
83rd Matthew Greenwood 30:03 (+7:25)
93rd Greta Prince 35:55 (+13:13)
109th Oscar Burns 32:43 (+10:05)
135th Zara Töes 46:33 (+23:51)
140th Thomas Potts 37:19 (+14:41)
MP Sam Carryer 

Forest relay: Composure and compass for women’s team finishing 8th

The JWOC relay featured more of the technically demanding terrain in Bussevik, with the intricate navigation required catching out the world’s best. Amid the chaos, Rachel led the charge in the Women’s NZ1 team, producing a composed run, sending Tide out on the second leg. After a bad day at the middle, Tide was on fire! She was over talking left right and centre, setting up Phoebe to keep the momentum going with a technically perfect run to bring it home in 8th place. The men’s race was equally as exciting, where several navigational errors proved costly. Across both relays, watching some of the sport’s strongest nations suffer major mistakes caused kiwi spectators back home to joke that there must be magnetic interference in the rocks. The reality was that the complex terrain demanded absolute concentration and precise compass work. Staying on your own course, trusting your compass, and avoiding the big errors helped the New Zealand women secure an excellent eighth-place finish in a world-class competition with the NZ1 men’s team finishing 19th.

RESULTS:
Women
8th New Zealand 1 Rachel, Tide, Phoebe 1:53:38 (+6:25)
MP  New Zealand 2: Zara, Greta, Georgia
Men
19th New Zealand 1: Jake, Blake, Matthew  2:08:27 (+25:19)
New Zealand 2: Sam, Thomas, Oscar. 2:27:12 (+44:04)

Karlskrona in the Blekinge region of Sweden provided a fantastic and challenging JWOC 2026. The New Zealand athletes had world-class individual races showing the promising rise of our next generation of orienteering talent. Rachel Baker and Jake McLellan delivered great performances on the world stage- highlighted by Rachel’s stunning 6th place in the Middle Distance, 10th in the Long, and Jake’s impressive 14th in the Middle. 

Beyond these top junior results, the week was made even more thrilling by the energy of up-and-coming squad members. Tackling Sweden’s brutally physical, boulder-strewn terrain and intricate navigation, we rose up to the challenge!. Many thanks to the hosts at the Orion Club in Karlskrona, Sweden for an awesome competition.

Thanks to the coaches & managers

The JWOC team would like to thank and acknowledge the coach and management team. Yvette did a huge job of coordinating everything, being there at the finish line each day for all the athletes and asking hard questions of the organisers in the team leaders meetings! 

Renee was an excellent coach, doing all the tough jobs like the early shifts and late-night missions to A&E. Tane, following on from coaching duties in 2025, did a great job of being calm and reassuring in quarantine, helping with the technical preparations as well as taking the title of the least exciting driver!

There are years worth of coaching, mentoring, managing, parenting leading up to every JWOC, and many others have coached and contributed before, including Briana who was avidly watching from in NZ.

Rachel Baker in ONZ records as best JWOC long result

Rachel Baker achieved NZ’s best female result in this JWOC long event (titled classic distance in earlier previous JWOC events) with 10th place. She came very close to the best NZ result in the middle too, just one place off Tania Robertson’s 5th in the Short/Middle (Finland, 1992). Angela Simpson’s 6th in the sprint (Poland, 2011) remains the best female sprint result. Rachel said in her interview on ONZ social media that her result was the culmination of years of training in the lead-up to JWOC.  

For the record our best men’s JWOC podium results are: 
Middle (Short) event :
1st Matt Ogden, (Slovakia, 2012)
Sprint: 
1st Tim Robertson, (Bulgaria, 2014)
Long (Classic) 
2nd Zefa Fa’avae (Czechia 2024)