Claro Orienteering Club normally have a regular series of Level D evening events in early summer, but this year they squeezed three of these in during late summer.

They were organised and planned at very short notice, but we are fortunate in having some largish parklands in Harrogate and Ripon that the council let us use for these events with minimal fuss. Other landowners are not allowing events at the moment.

The Claro Orienteering Club Treasurer has taken entries by email and payment preferably by bank transfer or we now have a card reader at events. Linda is hoping some computer whizz can come up with a more automated ways to handle this. Starts are assigned to 15-minute blocks and we had approx. 20 and then 40 competitors at the first two events and found the start ran smoothly. We used stakes some with clear, SIAC test, check boxes to mark out a socially distanced start queue. For both events we had start and download within 100m of each other on a large area of grass. Parking was nearby. The large open area was ideal to enable Covid-safe queueing and socialising in small groups and was probably the most important factor for successful events. The actual orienteering was just business as usual with three courses corresponding roughly to green, short green and yellow. Feedback from competitors was unanimously enthusiastic though many admitted to being unfit and rusty.

Regarding Covid precautions we found everyone is well trained in the 2m rule and this gets respected, but competitors were slower to use hand sanitiser and some competitors do, certainly, touch boxes. We will be making some signs to remind competitors. We are expecting that there will be few large (Level C and up) events this winter and are considering a regular series of say every 2-3 weeks of low key events which are liable to be of very variable format, and organised as we go on.

Photo credits:  Linda Kelly (Claro)
Start line. Download.  Prepared hire si cards for collection.  Socially distanced post race chat.

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Celebrating the re-start of orienteering.  
What activities or events has your club organised? Have you recently attended a re-start event?  How was it?
Maybe you have downloaded a Permanent Orienteering and/or Virtual Orienteering Course and enjoyed it with your family?  Or you have recently enjoyed taking part in a local MapRun course or even designed your own MapRun course for members of your club to take part in?  
However, you have been taking part in orienteering, share your experiences with others who may not have re-started yet.

Share your re-starting orienteering news and send your snippets, and photos to Jennie Taylor Communications Officer. 
Email:  jtaylor@britishorienteering.org.uk 

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To view the current British Orienteering Guidance visit:  
https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/COVID19_Safe_Orienteering

#StaySafe