The Peter Palmer Relays for Juniors will be held this year over the weekend of 8-9 September 2018 in Tankersley, South Yorkshire.

The organising club will be SYO. This year, as well as the classic PPR race over 6 Legs starting in the dark, there will be an additional ad hoc class to cater for less experienced Juniors. This will be run in daylight and will comprise of 4 Legs at technical difficulty levels 2-3. Clubs are welcome to enter teams into any class.

For the first time, the race will be sponsored by the Swedish Mass Relay Tio Mila. This famous event takes place in Sweden every spring, with 10 runners per team at ages M/W18 upwards. They run Long-O type courses through the night, finishing the next morning. The Junior Tio Mila race takes place in the daylight over 4 Legs and is open to M/W12-16 runners.

Jacky Dakin, Organiser of the Peter Palmer Relay 2018, says:
“Peter Palmer Relays is a brilliant team event for Juniors. It’s great fun, with overnight accommodation provided in a sports hall adjacent to the area. Tankersley is one of SYO’s best areas, offering significant technical challenge to the experienced orienteer but with a good path network that also caters for the younger Juniors. We hope all clubs will send a Junior team!”

Phil Conway, England Development Officer, says:
“The Tio Mila sponsorship deal is very exciting. The club with the winning team in the Peter Palmer Trophy in 2018 will be awarded a free entry into the junior race at 10Mila 2019 in Sweden, including race entry and accommodation”.

The Peter Palmer Junior Team Relay is named after one of Britain's finest orienteering coaches. Peter Palmer helped to devise this event to give an opportunity for Juniors to experience competition similar to some Scandinavian events and the Harvester Relays, whilst also giving the chance for social interaction amongst Juniors from across the country.

The Peter Palmer Junior Team Relay is for club teams comprising all standards of Junior orienteers from the M/W12 to M/W18 age classes. The race is run over six laps. Each team must have at least two laps run by boys and two laps run by girls.

There are three Trophies to be presented at the Peter Palmer Junior Team Relay:

• Peter Palmer Trophy - all team members from the same club.
• Joan George Trophy - all team members from the same club, combined British Orienteering ages to total 90 or less.
• Norwich Orienteering Club Anniversary Trophy - all team members either from the same ‘small club', or from two 'small clubs' forming a combined team.

SYO are also organising an event on Saturday afternoon in Sheffield with white to blue courses which they hope the Peter Palmer participants and accompanying adults will attend.

So, the message to Juniors in all clubs is clear – be there for a fantastic weekend of orienteering on September 8-9^th in Sheffield!

Details and entry via https://www.southyorkshireorienteers.org.uk/events/event/704-peter-palmer-relays

More information about the Peter Palmer Relays can be found here.