A team-mate's misfortune could point the way to Australia and Japan for York orienteer Jenny Whitehead.

Jenny Whitehead

Durham University student Whitehead (pictured) has been selected as the Great Britain senior team's first reserve for their World Cup races in the two far-flung countries.

That means she will be promoted into the six-strong team if any of her colleagues drop out. At the moment that is a real possibility as 44-year-old Liz Campbell from Wales has been suffering with a serious knee injury and may not be able to take part.

But even if she doesn't make it for the Easter races she is likely to be involved with the British team later in the year.

"There are World Cup races all year round and they want to try us all out so there's a definite chance I'll get to run in some of them," said the 21-year-old, whose former York Sixth Form team-mate Amy Willis is second reserve.

It is going to be a busy year for Whitehead who faces some big decisions about her future. She has come a long way since winning her first British title at the age of 11 and is now ranked among the top eight in the country.

But this could be her most important year yet. She finishes her degree in Politics and European Studies this summer after which she is considering moving to Finland a to further her orienteering development.

The sport is very big in Scandanavia and several members of her Great Britain team-mates have moved to Finland.

That was where she made her first appearance for the British senior team last year and she was very impressed with the host nation.

She said: "I gained some good experience. There were some amazing people. The World Championships in 2001 will be in Finland so all the teams sent their best people."

Whitehead was satisfied with her own performance because she was just returning from injury but now she is back to full fitness and raring to go.

If she misses out on the trip to Japan and Australia she will instead go to Scotland for a major UK event. At the end of this month she travels with the rest of the British team to Sweden for fitness testing and team building then in February they will spend a week undergoing warm weather training in Portugal.

Also coming up is the UK Cup which is run on a league basis. Whitehead will be taking part in the individual event which counts towards seedings for the British Championships.

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