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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If you are unable to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM), you have until 5pm on Wednesday 17 April 2019 to vote by proxy to vote on your behalf.

Photos: JK2018; Photo Credits:  Rob Lines. 

In the Women’s race, it was a first World Games experience for Megan Carter Davies after her World Championships debut this year. Megan finished up in 17th place and said afterwards:  "It was a decent run and I am quite happy with it. The course was straightforward but I was tiring towards the end and slowing down going in and out of controls"

Tessa Strain finished in 22nd place. Tessa said after the race that "unfortunately, a mistake in the first half of the race meant she didn’t get the result she was hoping for. The rest of the course outside of the mistake went well for her."

The full results can be found here.

Well done to all athletes today. The series of three races continues with the Middle Distance tomorrow.