The government has issued new guidance for the national lockdown in England, which comes into force on Tuesday 5 January.
The guidance states that:
All organised orienteering activities, including events, competitions, leagues and coaching, are therefore suspended with immediate effect (except for orienteering for disabled people, on which we will provide further information in due course).
POCs and VOCs can still be used for individual exercise. Courses should be registered with British Orienteering as activities to provide insurance cover for the club and planner. They must not be used for competitions or leagues.
We would recommend that you add any courses on to the British Orienteering POC portal via your club POC Manager or contact nweir@britishorienteering.org.uk
The full national lockdown: stay at home guidelines are available on the UK government website.
Guidance for orienteering clubs
Up to date support and guidance for UK orienteering clubs is available via our COVID page.
The First Minister has today announced that Tier 4 restrictions have been brought forward to the 20 December 2020.
However, the guidance that the Welsh Executive has published is clear that people who live in Tier 4 areas must not travel out of their Tier 4 area other than for legally permitted reasons, and that people who live in Tier 4 areas must not leave or be outside of their home except where they have a specific purpose or ‘reasonable excuse’.
For those living in a Tier 4 area, unlimited outdoor exercise is still permitted, including in parks and the countryside. Exercise must be alone, or in a public outdoor place with your household, support bubble, or one other person. Exercise should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your Tier 4 area to do so if necessary (for example, to access an open space).
Orienteers are obviously required to comply with the new restrictions and with other government guidance.
British Orienteering will the guidance as further details of the new restrictions become available.
Sunday 1st August - Saturday 7 August 2021
The 23rd Scottish 6 Days Orienteering event will be held in Lochaber between the 1st and 7th August 2021 (immediately following O-Ringen in Sweden). Lochaber is a scenic area in the Scottish Highlands, including Fort William, the outdoor capital of Scotland and Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK.
Get excited and get busy planning your trip for the 23rd Scottish 6 Days multi-day holiday event. It promises to be a highlight in the orienteering calendar this year!
Full event details and information can be found on the Scottish 6 Days website.
Entries opened on the 1 January 2021.
Be sure to secure your entry and take advantage of the early entry prices available until the end of January.
Entry information can be found here.
Check out this promotional video.
To find out more visit: www.scottish6days.com
Today the GB JWOC squad ran the long distance race in Särkänpera, Finland, with courses of over 10.7km for the men and 7.6km for the women. There were, once again, many strong performances from our team, with records being set along the way.
Sasha Chepelin continued his superb run of form, coming in in 7th place in a very tight race, just 7 seconds off a podium position. Sasha will no doubt be slightly frustrated with another near miss, as reflected in his post race interview, ‘I'm not actually too happy - my race was pretty scrappy and I nearly ended up doing the butterfly loop backwards. I felt a bit better after taking on some energy, but I'm not sure I used my energy that well, as I feel OK now.' However, his JWOC 2017 individual discipline positions of 7th, 5th, and 7th make him the first Brit to ever gain 3 individual top tens, showing outstanding consistency against the very top of the international scene.
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