Jo Shepherd

Jo Shepherd

Jo Shepherd

Jo won the British Long Distance Championship race at Balmoral in May 2018.

Jo-headandshoulders I started orienteering whilst at school and joined INVOC after winning a year's free family membership at the Highland schools orienteering championships. As a junior, I was W14 British Champion, eight times Scottish Champion for my age-class and twice won the JHI. In 2010 I competed at EYOC in Spain but closely missed selection to JWOC and/or WUOC every year for the entire duration of my university studies.

In my final year at Edinburgh University, I decided to complete my 6-month chemical engineering master project in industry and contacted Halden SK in Norway who helped me find a project at the Norske Skog Saugbrugs paper mill. The top-class terrain and training environment of Halden SK benefited me hugely and I was selected for my first World Cup race some months later. I moved back to Halden after graduating in summer 2015 and I now work as a process engineer at the paper mill. I made my World Champs debut in Sweden 2016 and one year later achieved 18th place in the middle distance at the World Championships in Estonia.

Jo runs with Inverness OC (Scottish OA) and Halden SK (Norway)

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