Danielle to Represent NZ in Europe

It’s hard to keep up with Danielle Goodall – in every sense. As well as being one of Thames High School’s top academic students, she is also one of our fastest.

The Year 11 student plays just about every sport there is, and she’s about to wing her way to Europe to represent New Zealand at international orienteering competitions. 

First stop is Norway, where she’ll compete in the Junior World Orienteering Championships against athletes from all over the globe. ‘Juniors’ mean under 20 years old, and Danielle is just 15.
 
Then it’s on to Sweden. There, she’ll take part in the European Champs. With an incredible 23,000 competitors at this event, there’s one face she in the crowd she knows well – her brother Matthew, who was Head Boy last year, is also competing.
 
She does huge amounts of training. Her Australia-based coach emails her training schedules and they talk strategy on Skype. She trains 6 days a week, including a couple of 2-3 hour bush runs. Danielle’s parents take her back and forth to Auckland every fortnight for meets, and then there are club events to go to.

Danielle cleaned up in previous Australian orienteering competitions, and says she views this round of European events as a chance to build on her international experience. 

It’s all pretty impressive but to meet Danielle you wouldn’t know she’s such a superstar. She is extremely modest about her achievements.
 
It’s her first trip to Europe. She’ll travel as part of a team of 12 orienteers, a manager and a coach and they’ll be away for a month. That means getting lots of school work done in advance.
 
On top of all this Danielle also has a part time job. She’s raising the $8000 for the trip herself. There’s a collection box for her where she works at The Green Grocer, 451 Pollen Street.  Please give her a hand if you can.
 
Good luck Danielle – we’re proud of you!