World Orienteering Championships: Kew’s mother/son combination Natasha and Aston Key heading for Latvia

The family that runs together, stays together and, in August, Natasha Key, 46, and her son Aston, 18, will contest the World Orienteering Championships in Latvia

Natasha Key navigates her way around the course at the 2017 World Championships in Estonia

The family that runs together, stays together.

In August, Natasha Key, 46, and her son Aston, 18, will pull on the green and gold at the World Orienteering Championships in Sigulda, just outside the Latvian capital of Riga, and while many parents and teenagers struggle to share the same car together on a trip to school, the Kew mother-son orienteering pair will be breaking a bit of a sporting barrier.

“It’s my ninth time in the Australian team and I had a top 10 finish in 2003, so I think I’ve got a bit of street cred with him,” Natasha laughed. “Of course, I don’t know how long that will last.

“As far as at an international level in a team, I think it might have happened once before with America and maybe Estonia or an eastern bloc country, but it’s definitely a first for Australia.”

The Keys departed for their European competition jaunt on Friday and, on an itinerary tighter than any Contiki tour, Aston will contest the junior European Championships in Bulgaria and the junior World Championships in Hungary while Natasha will coach the Australian team at the World University Championships in Finland before both take to the thick forests of Sigulda.

At the worlds, Aston will compete in the 3km sprint event while Natasha will line up in the sprint, the relay and the 12km longer distance race.

Aston Key will have a busy competition schedule in Europe next month

Orienteering is a cross-country running sport in which competitors, armed with map and compass, navigate their way from point to point over unfamiliar terrain.

In the lead up to the worlds, there is no opportunity to take a look at the course.

“No, the first time you see the map is when they are shouting ‘ready, set, go’,” Natasha said. “It’s a most extreme form of running, you don’t have witches hats to follow.

“The distances (3km and 12km) are straight line measurements through the forest, if we get a bit of track to run on it’s a luxury. Mostly you’re up, down, climbing, jumping over things and running through thick bog.”

Natasha said, while some background in track or cross-country running is a helpful starting point - she herself moved from cross-country running as a 20-year-old - if you don’t have good map reading and compass skills, your race hopes will quickly disappear in a tangle of scrub and blackberry vines.

To follow the 2018 World Championships, visit: woc2018.lv/ or, for more information about joining a club in Melbourne, logon to vicorienteering.asn.au

Natasha and Aston Key are Local Sports Star nominees. For more stories and to nominate, visit: heraldsun.com.au/leader/localsportsstars