The full programme of this year’s UK Annual Orienteering Festival includes:

Three of the four competition areas over the weekend are very close together near to Farnborough / Aldershot. The Long-distance race on the Sunday is near Newbury (an easy hour’s drive away).

Friday’s Sprint race and Saturday’s Middle-Distance race are International Orienteering Federation (IOF) World Ranking Events. In addition, all three individual days will form part of 2019’s UK Elite Orienteering League and the UK Orienteering League. All four days will use Emit touch-free punching.

The JK event is named after Jan Kjellström (born 1940, died 1967) who was an orienteer from Sweden who played an important role in the development of the sport of Orienteering in Great Britain. Kjellström, a son of Silva compass founder Alvar Kjellström, travelled to Great Britain to promote the sport. There, he helped to accelerate developments in orienteering competition, mapping and coaching.Orienteering is a family sport as well as for top international competition. There will be taster courses suitable for beginners of all ages and abilities.
 

Di Smith, JK2019 Event Coordinator, said: “We are looking forward to welcoming top International athletes compete for the top medal places across the weekend. We are also looking forward to seeing many families and individuals taking part, with courses planned to suit all ages and fitness levels.”

There are entries to the JK2019 from a total of 27 countries. Organisers are delighted to see entries from as far as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and China. The top ten numbers of entries are from: UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Spain.

Jennie Taylor, Communications Officer at British Orienteering, said: “This event generates a real boost to the local economy with people travelling from overseas and across the UK to enjoy top quality orienteering.”

Orienteering is an outdoor sport. The aim is to navigate in sequence between control points, using a map, and decide the best route to complete the course in the quickest time. The sport of orienteering is for everyone at different entry levels.

The organising team are looking forward to welcoming competitors to some great terrain.

For more information and to enter visit the JK website.

Snapshot of some of last year's winners. 

Photo credits:  Rob Lines 

British Orienteering would like to take this opportunity to wish all members a great international festival of orienteering this Easter weekend.  

British Orienteering would like to thank Event Coordinators Di and Terry Smith from Southampton Orienteering Club (SOC) and all the South Central Orienteering Clubs for their time, commitment and hard work they have put into this event.  

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Photos: JK2018; Photo Credits:  Rob Lines. 

Elsewhere in the men’s race, Alex Carcas tactically retired after a mistake to focus on the relay tomorrow, and Harrison McCartney finished in 68th, after battling through from an early start, making the tracks for everyone else. Ali Masson finished in 60th after a race he described as ‘horrible, horrible, horrible’ and Nathan Lawson and Matt Fellbaum both achieved top 50s, coming in 47th and 39th respectively. 

In the women’s race, history was also made, with 3 top 20 finishes in the JWOC long race for the first time ever, with GB one of only four countries with this strength in depth (a group which notably doesn’t include Finland or Sweden). This means that the relay A team for tomorrow all ran exceptionally, with Jenny Ricketts and Fiona Bunn separated by just 6 seconds in 13th and 14th respectively, and Grace Molloy in 20th to post her second top 20 in her first ever JWOC races, following on from her 19th in the middle final. Fiona said of her first top 15, ‘I was pleased to finally get a decent result, even after a shaky start to the race. It was a tough one, but I'm very proud of the whole team's performances and super excited for the relay!!!’ 

Meanwhile, Chloe Potter ran herself to 71st place, about a minute behind Alice Rigby, who finished in 65th, with Cecilie Andersen less than 3 minutes off a top 20, finishing 34th. 

Full results are available at http://online4.tulospalvelu.fi/tulokset/en/2017_jwoc_long/. 

Alongside Fiona, we are also excited for the relay races tomorrow, where both the Men’s and Women’s teams have real chances of a podium finish. Follow the event live from the links on the JWOC website, with the Men off at 11:30 BST and the Women next at 12:45 BST. 

Credit - David Bunn