AIRE and CLARO look forward to seeing you all at the British Middle Championships this coming weekend. 

You have entered in greater numbers than we anticipated, but we have adapted to cater for you all as best we can.  Both Danefield and Kilnsey Moor is a lovely places in the Spring sunshine and we really hope the weather is kind so that you can enjoy it at its best.  The technical woodland of Danefield is in sharp contrast to the fast open areas of Kilnsey.  You should enjoy some great orienteering on both days.  Str8 compasses is sponsoring a lot of prizes for the Northern Championships and the British Middles so run well and good luck.

Start times and final details are published, maps are printed and lots of equipment is ready to move.  No controls are out yet, but we have been busy at Kilnsey as you may be able to see from a picture.  There are a variety of crossing points on Kilnsey Moor – many of you will only encounter this one.  There are no stiles to cross at Danefield you’ll be relieved to know.

We will be able to accommodate you all in the parking areas for both events, but as always, it would help if you car shared as much as possible.  The Danefield field has remained in good condition throughout the winter, but as some rain has been forecast over the coming days we will have some tracking available.  Kilnsey has the delight of hard standing in the quarry.  We can’t promise that you will keep your feet dry, but at least cars should not get stuck in the mud as might have happened at some recent events.  We’re hoping that’s true for Danefield.  Definitely true for Kilnsey!

Anyone wanting to carry a club tent to Danefield, could reduce the distance to carry the tent by 800m by using the drop off point suggested in the event details.  It would need to be a rapid drop-off as there are often no parking bays available. They are all quite uneven, and the road is very narrow.  To get back to the parking field it is best to not attempt a 5 point turn but to drive in an anti-clockwise route with LH turns for 2.5k to get back to the parking field.  This should take no morfme than 5 minutes.

Have a great weekend.

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Full details on the British Middle Championships are available via this link. Visit the CLARO website for more details regarding the Northern Championships. Good luck to everyone taking part!

As agreed at the AGM 2023, from 1 May 2024 British Orienteering would like to offer an exclusive part-year Membership to new members.

New members are individuals who have not been members of British Orienteering in any of the previous four calendar years.

Part year membership fees 2024

Seniors – £10

Young adults – £7.50

Juniors – £3.00

Families – £25.00 (all members must be new members and not on the database to take up this offer).

No memberships will be merged with existing memberships.

Please note from 1 January 2025, any “new” members will need to renew their membership for 2025.

Find out more about how to join online today. 

The GBR teams for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) and the European Youth Orienteering Championships (EYOC) are announced.

The JWOC races are in Plzeň, Czechia from 1 - 6 July and the EYOC races are in Szczecin, Poland from 21 - 24 June.

All named athletes are selected to all disciplines at each competition.

In alphabetical order of surname, the JWOC team is:

Non-travelling reserves: Adam Barrie and Emma Crawford

In alphabetical order of surname, the EYOC team is:

TrailO Relay, The Capitals Golf Club, Pipiriškes

There was controversy from the outset at the Relay day on Friday when athletes arriving in time for a 9.00 a.m. start to the competition had to wait for the best part of two hours before the competition to get under way, because the golf course owners had not allowed any placement of the flags before the day of the event.

Things got no better when first leg finishers reported several doubtful control sites and one decision point with the only two SI boxes when there were three flags at the control site.

Discontent continued as the officials and volunteers battled to complete the final TempO station within a reasonable timescale, but such were the number of complaints, followed by official protests by several countries, that the announcement of the final results and the prize giving were delayed  until Saturday to enable the hard worked jury to inspect and decide upon the six official protests.

The Jury eventually voided three out of the 27 control sites, accepting some protests, rejecting others. They also confirmed the Organisers’ decision to disqualify the Open class teams from Latvia and Poland and the Para team from Russia for infringements of the rules!

Eventually, in the Paralympic class, Ukraine was declared the winners, followed by the Czech Republic and Norway.

In the open class, the Winners were Slovenia, followed by Norway in Silver and the Czech Republic took Bronze, a second and a half ahead of the Slovak team in 4^th who was a second ahead of the Finns in 5^th place.

The Norwegian team’s second leg runner, Sigurd Daehli, made orienteering history. Having won World Championship medals in SkiO and FootO in previous decades, he became the first orienteer to achieve a championship medal in three separate disciplines. There is no truth in the rumour that he is in training for next year’s MTBO!

It was also notable for the rise of the central European nations and this year the eclipse of Sweden who finished 10^th.

As for the British team of Tom Dobra, Charles Bromley Gardner (who was affected by illness) & John Kewley, they endured a difficult day, before eventually finishing in 14^th place.

PreO Day 2,  Aukštadvaris, Lithuania

The second PreO course, held on Saturday, in a mixture of woodland and rough open terrain near the kart track at Aukštadvaris was the final day of what has been an eventful week in Lithuania. Thankfully the sun shone, the course was excellent and testing, and after the adventures of the previous day’s relay, the controls appeared to be largely in the right place and there were no protests at the end of the competition.

The British team had a very satisfactory day overall. In the Open class, Charles Bromley Gardner, still unwell but recovering, held on well to finish in 10^th place, one of six competitors with 43 points and the best GBR placing in the Open class since Ian Ditchfield’s podium place in Scotland in 2012. John Kewley with a score of 41 was placed 21^st and Ian Ditchfield, on 40, was placed 29^th.

In the Paralympic competition, Dick Keighley finished in 23^rd place.

Tom Dobra, selected for the GBR TempO & relay teams, won the Public PreO competition over the championship course with a total score of 42 points.

Several of the leading competitors after Day 1 fell by the wayside in the tricky conditions, whilst others had already made too many errors to be able to figure in the top places at the end of the day.

At the end of the two days PreO, the gold medal went to Lars Jakob Waaler of Norway with 45 points, a score also achieved by Pinja  Mäkinen who had taken a few seconds longer at the time controls. The Bronze medal went to Geir Myhr Øien, also of Norway with 44 points, a score also achieved by two former world champions Stig Gerdtman of Sweden, who was placed 4th, and Anne Straube, of Octavian Droobers, a British Orienteering member but here representing her native Germany in 5^th position, her best placing for some time. To gain a podium place in this standard of competition is a tremendous performance.    

Further news reports can be found at the links below:

World Trail Orienteering Championships - PreO Round 1

World Trail Orienteering Championships 2017 - TempO

World Trail Orienteering Championships 2017