Neta

Today is Neta Dafni's 20th birthday, and she is about to become only the second female orienteer to represent Israel in JWOC, following Idit Gershoni back in 1996. This says a lot about the lack of women in Israeli orienteering, but also a lot about Neta.
She started orienteering through the school league (as far as I know) when she was 13, and was almost immediately one of the best orienteers of her age group. I started coaching her 4 years ago, and she had a good season in 2006/7, finishing with participation in EYOC 2007. Then came two years with no progress, due to the typical problems any 17-18 year old girl in Israel can suffer from – school, army duty, motivation, and so on.
Last year, at the national team training camp in Spain, I told Neta that she had the potential to become a real elite orienteer, if she could overcome the physical issue: get into a more athletic lifestyle and start a regular, long-term training plan. To her credit, that's exactly what she did. After starting the season in D21B she stepped up to D21A (our top category for women), won the Winter Championships, and nearly won the rankings as well despite missing the first 4 events. This proved that she was good enough for JWOC, in her last possible year, so here we go.
Neta has been training according to my instructions faithfully since August, and I won't be exaggerating if I write that she has executed over 95% of the plan (any athlete knows how difficult that is). She is now a fit, tough, and technically excellent orienteer, ready to participate in her toughest challenge yet in Denmark. Happy Birthday and Good Luck!