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:

This week sees the 21^st World University Orienteering Championships take place in Kuortane, Finland. Located inland to the North-West Finnish coastal town of Vaasa, Kuortane features relatively flat terrain, based around subtle contour details, open rock and point features such as knolls and boulders. This fast, open terrain has little to impede the competitors and will require good focus and compass direction, alongside a high physical capacity, to deliver the medals. For the sprints, a combination of forest and urban terrain looks likely to be used, with the possibility of artificial barriers making what at first glance seems to be simple terrain built around running speed into a technical challenge to rival any international.

The GB team are defending champions in the Sprint and Sprint relay and will look to retain both titles with a team that has seen a vast number of chances from the team which helped dominate the championships in Miskolc, Hungary, two years ago. There are four members of the team who do remain, with Jonathan Crickmore, Alexander (Sasha) Chepelin, Megan Carter-Davies and Katie Reynolds all representing their respective universities once again on the international stage.

The week itself begins at 14:00 GMT with the Mixed Sprint Relay on Tuesday 17^th, and the GB team will look to get off to a winning start. In 2016 the GB team dominated the sprint disciplines, with an emphatic victory in the Sprint Relay the highlight of the week. The team has seen significant changes since then. Gone are Charlotte Ward, Peter Hodkinson and Kris Jones (1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd legs respectively), and in comes Cecilie Anderson, Jonathan Crickmore and Sasha Chepelin (Legs 1,2 and 3) joining returning anchor leg runner Megan Carter-Davies.

Two years ago, the GB team held firm in the top-3 positions with Charlotte and Peter for the first two legs, before Kris Jones broke away on leg 3, with Megan holding the lead through to the finish. There will likely be an unusual combination between forest and urban, with old maps showing large forested sections next to the town, and with the urban sections looking relatively simple, which will increase the likelihood of artificial barriers being used to increase the technical challenge. With a risk of thunderstorms on this first day, things could get chaotic out in the terrain. Be prepared to see some nations who you would not class as traditionally strong sprint nations or those who build their medal chances around the forest, holding strong positions long into the race.

After this fast and furious start, the individual races will get underway. First up will be the Middle Distance, before the runners return to the urban terrain for the Sprint on Thursday 19^th, before heading back to the forest again for the Long distance, with the Relay completing the week on Saturday 21^st (at which there will be two teams representing each country, with the first team over the line the only one to count officially).

Although there are six men and women in the team, only four are permitted to race in each discipline, the full team is as follows:

Sprint Relay: Cecilie Andersen, Jonathan Crickmore, Sasha Chepelin, Megan Carter-Davies.

Middle:

Women - Megan Carter-Davies, Sarah Jones, Chloe Potter, Fay Walsh
Men - Alexander Chepelin, Nathan Lawson, Ben Mitchell, Joe Woodley.

Sprint:

Women - Cecilie Andersen, Chloe Potter, Katie Reynolds
Men - Alexander Chepelin, Jonathan Crickmore, Matthew Elkington, Nathan Lawson.

Long:

Women - Cecilie Andersen, Megan Carter-Davies, Sarah Jones, Fay Walsh
Men - Jonathan Crickmore, Matthew Elkington, Ben Mitchell, Joe Woodley.

Relay: Teams to be confirmed.

All information and free online results and GPS tracking can be found here.