YORK orienteer Jenny Whitehead was jetting out to Switzerland today to compete in the World Championships.

The Eborienteer will be hoping to build on good results in last year's World Cup and European Championships and is aiming at a top twenty place.

She will be competing with the British team and should improve on her last appearance at the World Championships when she finished 40th in the middle distance race and 543th in the long race.

Whitehead, 24, is also reserve for the British relay team which comprises Heather Munro, Hannah Wootton and Sarah Rollins.

As last-minute preparation, Whitehead won the elite class by over five minutes at the Scottish Six Days event at Forres.

She then finished less than a minute down on Sweden's Annika Lindstrom on day three's race at Loch Vaa, Avimore.

After the World Championships Whitehead will be running on Eborienteers' annual White Rose event over the August Bank Holiday based at Langdale End, near Scarborough - the same forest where she made her orienteering debut as a nine-year-old in 1987.

Updated: 10:18 Friday, August 01, 2003