Junior World Championships 2012

My teammates Isabella, Margaux and I arrived a week early to Drzonkow, Poland to train and get acclimated to the time change before Junior World Championships. There were some other athletes training at the center from other countries as well which was good. Janusz went with us and was our coach while we were there and since he is from Poland he always makes us feel right at home! We were able to go into the city of Jelenia Gora one night and get dessert as well as do a little bit of shopping at the mall. We were also able to go to a Polish concert with the band Zako Power.  It was a great experience.  Even though the music was in Polish, it was an amazing and a fun time! We were also able to take some of the horses out in the woods and gallop around some of the trails. It was so much fun to just ride a horse for fun and the trails around the training center are beautiful!
The first day of competition was the Women's Relay. In the relay all people compete in all 5 events but each event is shortened a little bit, fencing will have less touches, swimming we will each swim 100m instead of 200m, we have to complete 8 jump obstacles each instead of 15, and in the combined we each run 2x 1000m and shoot twice. Isabella, Margaux, and I would be competing together. We had a decent fence and finished in 4th place. After a solid swim we maintained our placing. We got a great set of horses for the riding portion and only had two rails knocked down. We ended up moving into 3rd place after the ride with the combined event of running and shooting left. We were all a bit nervous going into the combined but being able to practice at the range so much the week prior made us feel a little more confident and relaxed. I was first to go in the combined, after the first shoot and run I had closed some ground on first and second place. On my second round of shooting I passed Russia who was in second place and in the run I passed the first place team Ukraine. It was such a great feeling but I knew that with my other two teammates to go, the race wasn't over. Isabella went second and was able to maintain and increase our lead over the other teams. Margaux went last and increased the lead that we had. We finished with the Women's Relay Gold! It was such a great feeling and so exciting to stand on the podium and hear our national anthem! We still had semifinals and finals left for the competition but this was a great way to start off the week.

We had one day rest before the semifinals. I would be in the second group. My fencing was a bit rough and I didn't do as well as I wanted to. I had a great swim and a new personal best time by two seconds which was very exciting. I was in 19th place after the fencing and swimming. The top 18 would make finals and I knew that I had been working hard with my combined so was hopeful that I would be able to run my way into the top 18. My shooting was great and I had a solid run which allowed me to work my way up to 10th place and run the last lap a little easier to save up my energy for finals. Isabella, Margaux and I all made finals which was a first for the U.S. Women's team to have that many qualify for finals at a Junior World Championships. We would have one more day rest before the finals. We had a team of four males and four females in Poland for the competition. One male, Nathan Schrimsher made finals for the first time at Junior Worlds which was very exciting as well for our team!
I was a little bit sore for the finals competition but knew that I could push through and wanted to improve from my results of last years Junior Worlds. The fencing was hard but I did well and made improvements from the previous year. My swim was only a few tenths of a second slower than semifinals, but I was still very happy with my time and it helped to move my placement up. With the results from the fencing and swimming there would be a team competition with the top three female athletes from each country and the U.S. team had a great lead and good chance to win that as well. I had a great horse for the riding portion and only had one rail. The horse was amazing and a blast to ride! I was starting the combined in 22nd place. I had very good rounds of shooting and my running was strong as well, the last lap I was extremely tired but was still able to move up and finish in 18th place. I was happy with my results and with my teammate Margaux winning the overall Junior World Championships and her sister Isabella coming in 8th place we had won the team competition for the Women's Junior World Championships. We had about a 500 point lead on the second place team which was amazing and once again a first for the U.S.A. Women's Pentathlon Team!

Janusz and our riding coach Andre are pictured with us below. Overall Junior World Championships turned out to be an amazing experience and great results for the USA Women's Pentathlon and a new personal best for myself.