Maya Shines at Junior World MTBO Champs ictorian mountain bike orienteer Maya Bennette has produced an outstanding series of performances for Australia at the 2026 Junior World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Mora, Sweden – culminating in a brilliant 7th place in the W20 Sprint. Maya began her championships in the Middle Distance, racing through the fast and technical Swedish terrain to finish an impressive 19th in 55:47, just 8:14 behind the winner. She backed that up the following day with another strong performance in the Long Distance, finishing 15th in 1:37:45. But Maya saved her best result for the Sprint. Sprint MTBO is fast, technical and unforgiving, where a few seconds spent on a route-choice decision can make a huge difference to the final result. Maya produced a fantastic ride, finishing the W20 course in 18:33 to take 7th place in the world. Just how close was it? Maya missed 6th place by only four seconds and finished just 75 seconds behind the winner. It was an exceptional result in an incredibly competitive international field and a wonderful achievement for the young Victorian. And Maya’s World Championships weren’t finished there. For the final event of the week, Maya stepped up from the junior ranks to join Ricky Thackray and Will Palmer Whittington in Australia’s Men’s Elite Relay team. Ricky rode the opening leg before handing over to Maya, who took on a Men’s Elite relay course in damp and slippery conditions. Will then rode the final leg to bring Australia home with an official result. It was a gutsy way to finish an already impressive World Championships campaign. Across her individual races Maya recorded 19th in the Middle, 15th in the Long and 7th in the Sprint, demonstrating that she can compete right alongside some of the world’s best junior MTBO athletes. Congratulations Maya on an outstanding Junior World Championships and on representing Australia – and Victoria – so brilliantly on the world stage! If you haven’t already – I’d highly recommend checking out the Livelox routes here: https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/199289/World-MTB-Orienteering-Championships-middle https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/199293/World-MTB-Orienteering-Championships-long https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/199430/World-MTB-Orienteering-Championships-sprint https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/199442/World-MTB-Orienteering-Championships-relay Share this