The final preparations are well under way ahead of this year's Jan Kjellström
International Festival of Orienteering 2024!
The teams will be out over the next couple of days setting up the arenas ready to receive you for a cracking good weekend of top-quality orienteering.
The weather gods have been less than kind, so we recommend you put on your best O shoes that give you the best grip.
Please note that version 6 of the programme is the latest (and hopefully last) version to be published. It went live yesterday, so please check it out, especially if you are coming in a campervan on Day 4 as the parking instructions have been changed.
Please note that the embargo area for Day 1 has been reduced.
Loughborough is now an established, and still testing, area. Day 1 will be a World Ranking event (WRE).
PreO will take place in urban terrain and there will also be an opportunity for participants to try out Biathlon Orienteering at the event (this will also be available on Days 2 and 3 of the Festival).
Beaudesert has been used for many major events, though arena is a new location and the owners are a little nervous at what to expect. Please make this an enjoyable experience for them. We want them to invite us back!
The final day of the Festival will take place at Stanton Moor. Another testing area and also in a new arena.
If you are on social media, please do not forget to tag us in your posts via Facebook, X and Instagram @britishorienteering. The hashtag for the event is #TheJK2024.
Finally, thank you to everyone involved in the production of this event. We hope you have a great weekend!
The embargo area for Day 1 of the JK has been reduced.
The updated embargoed area can be viewed here.
An area of the South West has been removed which contains the Burleigh Court hotel. However, anyone staying there involved in the JK should drive out to the main road and re-enter the campus through the Epinal Way entrance to get to the event.
They should of course avoid entering the embargoed area at all times.
All the latest information about this weekends JK can be found on the JK website.
If you are interested in representing GBR, please read on!
The Foot O selection policies have been updated. Now included are the availability forms for athletes, which you should use to to declare your interest in being selected for GBR teams at international competitions this summer.
More details can be found here: www.britishorienteering.org.uk/Selection
Note that the process to select the World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) team is different to the others, with different deadlines, so please read that part of the policy carefully if you are interested in racing for GBR at WUOC.
The Yvette Baker Trophy and Shield, the annual programme of club junior orienteering competitions, starts later this month (Saturday 29 February 2020) with the Welsh heat at Merthyr Common in South Wales.
In 2020 (as in 2019) the programme divides into two separate junior competitions that take place at the same event. The Yvette Baker Trophy is for larger clubs, with teams of 9 runners to count; the Yvette Baker Shield is for smaller clubs, with teams of 5 runners to count.
The list of regional heats and final in 2020, the competition rules and the list of eligible clubs, showing which clubs compete in the Trophy vs the Shield, are contained on the competition website: www.britishorienteering.org.uk/yvettebaker
Good luck to all clubs and junior orienteers in 2020!
Photos above: Left: South Yorkshire Orienteers (SYO) have won the Trophy for past three years and go from strength to strength. Will 2020 be the year that another club finally topples SYO? Right: Essex Stragglers (SOS) were delighted to win the Shield in 2019, but with nearly 40 clubs eligible for the smaller club competition, they will face stiff opposition!
Credit: YBT 2019
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The Yvette Baker Trophy and Shield are the premier Junior Inter-Club competitions for English and Welsh orienteering clubs.
The Yvette Baker Trophy and Shield are named after Britain's first World Orienteering Champion Yvette Baker, who won Gold in the Short Distance event at the World Championships in Scotland in 1999.
There are two competitions held each year, that take place at the same event:
The Yvette Baker Trophy is for larger clubs, with teams of 9 runners to count.
The Yvette Baker Shield is for smaller clubs, with teams of 5 runners to count.