Kayla Fairbairn

Profiled September 2015

Number of years orienteering?
I started in year 9, so this is my 5th year.

How were you introduced to orienteering?
Through the sprint series in Auckland, going with my school team.

Key orienteering achievements to date?
JWOC 2014 and 2015

Current orienteering project or goal?
Currently, I am just building up my base for events in the future, as there are not many big races coming up. However my goal for next year is JWOC in Switzerland :)  
Favourite map and why?
Zheleznica, used for the Middle Distance in Bulgaria. It is such an incredible map, it genuinely looks like someone just drew heaps of squiggly lines and printed them as a map. It was a very technical course, and whilst I made lots of mistakes in the middle, I learnt a lot from my run.

Map you have yet to experience but aspire to orienteer on?
Trockener Steg in Switzerland

Orienteering hero?
Danielle Goodall, Tove Alexandersson

Other interests?
Squash, sleeping and going to the beach :)

JWOC
The Junior World Champs this year were one of the best experiences of my life so far! The atmosphere of preparing and competing with team mates from NZ and friends from other countries is really amazing, and of course the terrain in Norway was incredible to run in. My favourite race this year would have to have been the relay. The atmosphere in the arena was very tense, especially when some of the top women's teams made errors on the final leg! I was so proud of our teams result this year, especially Danielle's killer run on the first leg at her first JWOC. Overall, it was a very successful trip for NZ, and a fantastic week of racing.

For more information about Kayla, visit her worldofo profile.

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