Year 12 student Max Neve earned his spot in the 12-member Australian squad after competing in the Australian Orienteering Championships in Tasmania in April.

The 17-year-old, who has raised money to fund the trip, will compete in the mountainous terrain of the Dolomites region in northern Italy on June 24.

While Max has competed all over Australia, including Tasmania, Queensland and the ACT this year alone, this will be his first trip overseas.

"I've been involved in orienteering pretty much all my life and did my first race on my own when I was seven."

The world championships will draw the best competitors from across the world in races of different lengths and locations, with points allocated to individuals and teams.

"This is the best competition for juniors. I'm pretty nervous but I still have another two years left in juniors after this. For me, I think this is more about trying to get better rather than trying to win."

Max said has been training for about 12 months leading up to the junior world championships, including about 10 hours a week doing running, speed work and technical training sessions working on navigation. "Pretty much anyone can read a map, but orienteering is about the person who can do it while running as fast as they can.

"At the moment I'm probably not the fastest runner, but I've always been quite good at navigating."

His goal is to continue with orienteering after year 12.

"There's no direct money in orienteering. You can live off it, but it's from sponsorship. It's my dream to do that, but it will be very hard.

"Next year, I hope to take a gap year and go over to Europe. It's fairly big all over Europe and I'm looking forward to the whole experience."