AIRE and CLARO look forward to seeing you all at the British Middle Championships this coming weekend. 

You have entered in greater numbers than we anticipated, but we have adapted to cater for you all as best we can.  Both Danefield and Kilnsey Moor is a lovely places in the Spring sunshine and we really hope the weather is kind so that you can enjoy it at its best.  The technical woodland of Danefield is in sharp contrast to the fast open areas of Kilnsey.  You should enjoy some great orienteering on both days.  Str8 compasses is sponsoring a lot of prizes for the Northern Championships and the British Middles so run well and good luck.

Start times and final details are published, maps are printed and lots of equipment is ready to move.  No controls are out yet, but we have been busy at Kilnsey as you may be able to see from a picture.  There are a variety of crossing points on Kilnsey Moor – many of you will only encounter this one.  There are no stiles to cross at Danefield you’ll be relieved to know.

We will be able to accommodate you all in the parking areas for both events, but as always, it would help if you car shared as much as possible.  The Danefield field has remained in good condition throughout the winter, but as some rain has been forecast over the coming days we will have some tracking available.  Kilnsey has the delight of hard standing in the quarry.  We can’t promise that you will keep your feet dry, but at least cars should not get stuck in the mud as might have happened at some recent events.  We’re hoping that’s true for Danefield.  Definitely true for Kilnsey!

Anyone wanting to carry a club tent to Danefield, could reduce the distance to carry the tent by 800m by using the drop off point suggested in the event details.  It would need to be a rapid drop-off as there are often no parking bays available. They are all quite uneven, and the road is very narrow.  To get back to the parking field it is best to not attempt a 5 point turn but to drive in an anti-clockwise route with LH turns for 2.5k to get back to the parking field.  This should take no morfme than 5 minutes.

Have a great weekend.

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Full details on the British Middle Championships are available via this link. Visit the CLARO website for more details regarding the Northern Championships. Good luck to everyone taking part!

As agreed at the AGM 2023, from 1 May 2024 British Orienteering would like to offer an exclusive part-year Membership to new members.

New members are individuals who have not been members of British Orienteering in any of the previous four calendar years.

Part year membership fees 2024

Seniors – £10

Young adults – £7.50

Juniors – £3.00

Families – £25.00 (all members must be new members and not on the database to take up this offer).

No memberships will be merged with existing memberships.

Please note from 1 January 2025, any “new” members will need to renew their membership for 2025.

Find out more about how to join online today. 

The GBR teams for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) and the European Youth Orienteering Championships (EYOC) are announced.

The JWOC races are in Plzeň, Czechia from 1 - 6 July and the EYOC races are in Szczecin, Poland from 21 - 24 June.

All named athletes are selected to all disciplines at each competition.

In alphabetical order of surname, the JWOC team is:

Non-travelling reserves: Adam Barrie and Emma Crawford

In alphabetical order of surname, the EYOC team is:

The course planner had opted for a mixture of short legs through the dense path network mixed with plenty of long route choice legs, with course distances reflecting the flatter nature of the terrain with the men covering 47km whilst the women tackled a 33km course.

In the men’s race, the first control proved to be one of the most challenging with a number of riders losing several minutes to the fastest time, including Great Britain’s Ian Nixon who lost time straight out of the start but was able to pull it back to hit the first control in 47th. A long 2^nd leg split the riders up with a whole host of different routes being taken although a number of riders complained that one route choice was not made obvious on the map due to the use of a smaller path symbol being used. Former World Champions Anton Folioforov (Russia) and Krystof Bogar (Czech Republic) had got a bit of a lead here and maintained this until the next long leg to number 5 where a better route choice from Bogar propelled him into the lead, whilst GB’s Nixon had moved into the top 40. By the first drinks station, Krystof Bogar from the Czech Republic had a minute advantage over Middle Distance champion Simon Braendli (Switzerland) which he was able to build on over the next few controls to the map exchange and 2^nd drinks control whilst Nixon had slipped a few places to 44th. The course then went back into the dense network of paths where riders needed to be very careful they were on the right track. This proved tricky in the dark forest where some paths were hard to make out on the ground, which combined with the tiredness which was starting to set in after 75 minutes of fast riding gave some riders a few problems. Unfortunately, Nixon lost concentration in this section and missed out #18 having been riding well enough for a place in the top 40. Bogar had maintained his minute’s advantage, whilst Grigory Medvedev had got up to 3^rd place as the first of 4 Russian’s in the top 8. Soon after the course planner had used another of the very small mapped tracks which a number of leading riders didn’t see, although this didn’t affect the podium results. Bogar was able to extend his lead on the fast route to the finish to regain the title he last won in 2013 winning by more than 2 minutes from Simon Braendli who gained his 2^nd medal of the week.

The women’s race started with a similarly tricky 1^st control which caught out a few leading riders and by the end of the long 2^nd leg Martina Tichovska (Czech Republic) had a minute lead over Camilla Soegaard (Denmark). However, a mistake by the Czech rider at the next control allowed the Dane to take over the lead and by the end of the next long leg at number 6 she had a 1:40 lead over Svetlana Poverina (Russia), whilst Great Britain’s Clare Dallimore had moved up to 11^th after a mistake at the 1^st control. By the 1^st drinks control Soegaard was still leading but Tichovska had made up some of her lost time and was only 30 seconds back, whilst Gabriele Andrasiuniene (Lithuania) was up into 3^rd. After a couple more long legs the 2 leaders advantage was dramatically cut as both made mistakes on number 13. The women then had a leg using the small mapped track which had caused problems on the men’s course but this impacted the top places as Soegaard saw the route whilst Tichovska didn’t which regained the lead which had been changing places between these 2 throughout the race. Unfortunately for the Danish rider, a huge error exiting number 18 on an unmapped track lost her the lead as she dropped out of the top 10. Tichovska regained the lead but lost it with another mistake at the 20^th control which Antonia Haga (Finland) was able to capitalise on by taking the lead having been making her way closer to the lead throughout the race. However, there was more drama towards the end as having just made her way into the lead a poor route choice from Haga allowed Tichovska to retake the lead to 22 which she held onto to get back the title she had won in 2015, winning by the narrowest of margins of just 5 seconds from Haga who secured her first individual medal at a World Champs. Long-time leader Soegaard pulled back up to 9^th place but will rue the 8 minutes she lost at 18 finishing only 7 minutes behind the leaders. GB’s Dallimore had pulled up to a top 10, but took the same route choice as Haga to number 22 and dropped to 13^th, still a great result in tough conditions.

Men – 46.5km, 765m

• Krystof Bogar, Czech Republic 1:56:13
• Simon Braendli, Switzerland 1:58:20
• Anton Foliforov, Russia 1:59:31
• Jussi Laurila, Finland 2:01:16
• Valeriy Gluhov, Russia 2:01:27
• Vojtech Ludvik, Czech Republic 2:02:04

DSQ Ian Nixon, Great Britain

Women – 37.1km, 670m

• Martina Tichovska, Czech Republic 2:01:14
• Antonia Haga, Finland 2:01:19
• Svetlana Poverina, Russia 2:05:11
• Algirda Mickuviene, Lithuania 2:06:33
• Gabriele Andrasiuniene, Lithuania 2:06:54
• Veronika Kubinova, Czech Republic 2:07:00

13. Clare Dallimore, Great Britain 2:10:27