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Share  Tweet Wednesday 27th March 2024

Countdown to JK 2024: Final Details

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.

Event programme

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.

Access the event programme

Day 1: Friday 29th March - Sprint at Loughborough University

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). 

Day 2: Saturday 30th March - Middle at Beaudesert

Day 3: Sunday 31st March - Long at Beaudesert

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!

Day 4: Monday 1st April - Relay at Stanton Moor

The final day of the Festival will take place at Stanton Moor. Another testing area and also in a new arena.

Share your experiences at the event

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!

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Share  Tweet Tuesday 26th March 2024

Updated JK embargoed area day 1

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.

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Share  Tweet Thursday 21st March 2024

Update in GBR team selection policies

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.

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Share  Tweet Saturday 1st July 2017

GB Team Deliver Two Top 15 Finishes In The Sprint Final At The World Orienteering Championships

Today's sprint race saw runners starting in Tartu Town Square before a long uphill run to get to the University, set in wooded parkland.

Courses then looped around the park, down the hill for an urban section including an arena run-through, and then back up and down the hill on a second loop before finishing in the Town Square. The damp weather meant that running was quite difficult, both on the steep grass banks and on the cobblestones in the old town. Bad news for GB overnight was that Kris Jones had decided not to run in order to protect his calf injury and be ready for the Sprint Relay on Sunday, but that still left five GB runners.

In the Women’s race, Megan Carter-Davies finished in 28th place, Jo Shepherd in 30th place and Alice Leake in 35th place.

Speaking afterwards Megan said:
“This was my first World Championships and it has been a great experience. My race today did not go as smoothly as I would have liked, I felt rushed and missed some routes. I was disappointed when finishing but in retrospect, it's quite an accomplishment getting to the World Orienteering Championships Sprint Final in my first year as a senior and I'm happy to have laid down a solid result today. Overall I’m really pleased with a top-30 result.”

Photos below (left to right): Chris Smithard, Alice Leake, Megan Cater-Davies, Jo Shepherd, Peter Hodkinson.

Photo above (left to right): Chris Smithard and Peter Hodkinson

In the Men’s race, the two GB runners finished just 0.7 seconds apart, with Peter Hodkinson in 13th getting ahead of Chris Smithard in 14th only on the run-in. Both were understandably thrilled, as well as a little surprised, with their results.

Peter commented:
“It was one of the most physical sprint races I've done and I think my good running speed this year was crucial. I didn’t hold back and fought hard to the finish after losing some time not seeing the best route to control 1, taking the left-hand route when the middle route was faster. From then on I had a really good clean run, and the course was technically quite straightforward. I'm over the moon with 13th place, which feels like a breakthrough for me and gives me huge confidence that I can mix it with the best in the world. I now know that top 10 is totally achievable.

Peter’s “route-choice error” on control 1 cost him about 15 seconds, and he then spent the whole of the rest of the course gradually catching Chris. They had identical splits at the last control, but Peter just edged Chris out down the run-in.  

Chris said:
“I had an almost perfect run, and I don’t think I could have done much better. I made one small mistake running the wrong side of a building out of control 11. After the arena run-through I was worried that I wasn’t running fast enough, but then there was another hilly section near the end that really hurt.”

The British camp is in excellent spirits after today. Everybody is now looking forward to tomorrow’s Sprint Relay which takes place in Viljandi, about 40 miles west of Tartu.

Full results from the Sprint Final can be found here, with maps of today's courses found here.

Tomorrow, the action moves to Viljandi with the Sprint Relay starting at 15:05 - you can read about the GB Team here and follow the event here.

Photos: Simon Errington

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