The World Class Programme

The Great Britain orienteering Squad is supported by the World Class Programme, which is funded by UKSport and Sport England. The programme supports athletes with all aspects of their training with the aim of producing medallists at the annual World Championships and Junior World Championships.

At the 2008 World Championships, Great Britain won GOLD in the Men's Relay Event.

Read the News Item about winning the Gold Medal

Pictured: World Champions Graham Gristwood, Jon Duncan and Jamie Stevenson. (Photo Credit: Soren Andersson)

World Class Programme

After a year of many staff changes and a major review of the programme, the World Class Team is getting ready to launch new squads and a new approach to athlete development from January 2010.

The entire World-Class Programme, which includes the selection of athletes into National Squads, has been undergoing a restructuring process which has affected the current structure of the Senior, Junior and Start Squads.  Evidence suggests that to become an experienced World Orienteering Championship performer it takes an athlete approximately 12 years.  Therefore, from 2010 the World-Class Programme is adopting an approach that uses the principles of long term athlete development and which will move away from a segregated, strictly aged based structure towards one that better accommodates the athletes by grouping them by ability.

To ensure that talented young athletes are identified early we have developed a system that uses the principles of the Long Term Athlete Development Plan. Athlete Development begins at the club level where talented athletes will be identified and given expert advice and coaching in a Club Talent Squad. As athletes develop they will primarily be nominated by their club to join their Regional Talent Squad which will help develop and nurture their ability. The most talented will then be selected to join the World Class programme as part of the Talent Squad. Successful athletes will then progress through the World Class Squad (Talent - Academy - Performace - Podium).

The new approach also recognises the crucial role that Clubs and Regions play in Talent Identification and Talent Development. Working with Clubs and Regions and providing support and resources to assist them in talent development will be a key focus in the new system. In particular we will be seeking to engage with and provide development and educational opportunities for coaches who work with athletes at the Club and Regional level.

The 2010 World-Class Squad Structure will be linked to the ‘Orienteer Development Pathway’ (ODP).  The aim of the ODP, which is a series of ‘whole sport’ activities (e.g. physical, technical, and psychological), is to provide consistency across all levels of the World-Class Programme. The ODP also provides a framework for skill development across all areas of athlete development. There is a lot of evidence in talent identification and talent development that the athletes who go on to be the most successful are not the ones that progress quickly to combining skills, performing more advanced techniques and using more advanced tactics, but rather those who excel in executing the most basic skills and techniques.

The World Class Programme is supported by:

The World Races

Orienteering is not an Olympic sport. Our premier event is the annual World Championships. There is also an annual World Cup series and a bi-annual European Championship and World University Championships. Every four years we compete at the World Games.

The Junior's race internationally in the Junior World Championships, European Youth Championships and the Junior European Cup.

The Disciplines

Foot Orienteering has four disciplines: Long, Middle, Sprint and Relay.