Students from the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Secondary School participated in the Orienteering World Schools Championship in Otepää, Estonia last week.
The Chinese students are the only East Asian team in the Championship (the school also participated in the last edition in 2017). Israel is the only other fully Asian country in the Championship this year, along with Eurasian countries Turkey and Russia.
The students got overall 18th in class M1 School and 14th in class M2 School. In class M1 Selected, Chinese students came 14th overall.
The Orienteering World Schools Championship is organised by the International School Sport Federation (ISF). The ISF is in charge of international sport competitions for students 13 to 18 years of age. The orienteering event usually takes place every second year. 600 young athletes from 23 countries took part in the 18th edition this year.
The Championship consists of a middle distance race, a long distance race, and a friendship team event. The overall results are the total time of the team in the middle and long distance races. The friendship team event consists of mixed teams, each with members from different countries.
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Secondary School is based in Zhongshan where Dr Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Republic of China, was born, north of Zhuhai and Macau. The boarding school was founded in 1934 by Sun Fo, Sun Yat-sen’s eldest son, and is today a top-grade school of Guangdong Province. Within the orienteering community, the school is famous for its active orienteering activities. Its large campus of half a square kilometre has hosted public orienteering competitions.
