British Orienteering

Thursday 16th July 2020

Return to Orienteering Guidance for the UK

As a sport, we must work together to resume orienteering responsibly and within the relevant Government guidance.

The Board of Directors have committed to following the respective advice of each government, and therefore there are likely to be periods when types of orienteering activities permitted, vary between different parts of the UK, depending on the Government guidelines and regulations.

British Orienteering has developed a dedicated webpage here.

On this webpage the guidance for each of the nations will be updated accordingly as further announcements by local or national Governments are made.

Latest Guidance:

All guidance is subject to any further restrictions that may be imposed by local or national Governments.

England	Full club guidance England 13 July 2020
Wales	Full club guidance Wales 15 July 2020
Northern Ireland	Full club guidance NI 14 July 2020
Scotland	SOA event guidance 15 July 2020 SOA COVID 19 Risk Assessment phase 3 Scottish Orienteering reactivation phase 3

This webpage also includes links to key documents and information to support clubs and participants in delivering safe orienteering and includes the following support resources:

Participant code of conduct
Event/ activity signage zip file
Risk Assessment template
Club support letter for landowners
PPE procurement option
Virtual Orienteering Registration guidance
Useful Infographics

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Wednesday 12th August 2020

JK2021 Festival of Orienteering and Expressions of Interest Questionnaire

On behalf of Roger Hargreaves and Christine Vince, JK2021 Coordinators

We hope that you are keeping well and staying safe during this difficult time for everyone. The JK2020 team were very disappointed to have to cancel the event at Easter 2020.

Many of you will be aware that the time from start to finish for planning, organising and controlling a JK is usually a two and a half year period. To this end, the JK2021 organising team are busy with preparations for the four days that we hope will make up the JK 2021 Festival of Orienteering in Cornwall next year.

However, with the uncertainty regarding many aspects of delivering orienteering events that are now only just over six months away we have to plan for as many possible scenarios as we can think of.

Together with British Orienteering, the JK 2021 team have put together a short questionnaire to try and gauge orienteers reactions to a range of matters that we feel might make a difference to whether you might or might not come and take part in JK2021. All of these are subject of course to any lockdown restrictions and social distancing measures in force at Easter in 2021. T

Questionnaire to inform the JK2021 organising team

This short questionnaire starts to try and find out what orienteers are thinking about with regard to coming to JK2021. This survey will help to inform our provisional plans for Easter 2021.

On behalf of British Orienteering and the JK2021 organising team thank you for your time in advance for completing this questionnaire.

The JK2021 Questionnaire can be found here.

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Monday 10th August 2020

Selection Race Update - Entries are now open!

Having spent much of the past three days working on the final details, we can announce that we will be holding the Selection Race Weekend on 28th-30th August in the Southern Lakes.

The race programme will comprise a Sprint in Windermere on Friday (28 August) late afternoon (starts from approximately 4.30pm - 6pm), a Long on Saturday afternoon (29 August) and a Middle on Sunday morning (30 August), with both forest races being held on the Graythwaite Estate. Both of these areas are now under embargo until the conclusion of the race weekend.

Entries are now open via SiEntries here.

Selection Race Weekend

The deadline for entries is midnight, Sunday 23rd August.

All races will be seeded in accordance with British Orienteering rules and start times based on this process. The details of the race specifics are currently being worked on by the team of organisers, planners and controllers and we hope that provisional details will be published soon.

We will also ensure that all racing will comply with the latest covid-secure guidelines. If athletes are unable to attend the racing weekend for fitness, personal or COVID related reasons, they should contact Paul Murgatroyd (pmurgatroyd@britishorienteering.org.uk) and outline their situation, so that this can be considered by the selection panel.

The races will be used to select for EJOC and the Talent Assessment camp/squad and the final selection policy documents related to this are being worked on currently and should be up on the British Orienteering website by the end of this week.

Paul Murgatroyd
Head Coach for Talent
British Orienteering

EYOC and Junior European Championships Update
Previous news article can be found here.

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Wednesday 24th June 2020

Sprint World Championships added to IOF Major Events Calendar for 2021

The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) recently announced that Covid-19 impacts meant that the Sprint World Orienteering Championships (WOC) scheduled for Denmark in 2020 was postponed until 2022, and that Russia was no longer able to stage the 2021 European Orienteering Championships in Sprint (Sprint EOC).

Other announcements alongside this included the cancellation of the entire World Cup programme for 2020, and that the move of Denmark Sprint WOC to 2022 also meant the intention to move the date of Sprint WOC in Edinburgh from 2022 until 2024.

Since those announcements, the IOF have been working hard with member federations and event organisers on a revised approach for these major events. They have now been able to announce some further changes to the international calendar for 2021.

Specifically, the Czech organisers of the Forest WOC for 2021 have agreed to add Sprint WOC races to the overall programme in July. They will stage the current disciplines of Individual Sprint and Mixed Sprint Relay, with the debut of the new Knock-Out Sprint discipline remaining scheduled for Denmark Sprint WOC in 2022.

In addition, the Swiss organisers of World Cup Round 1 in May 2021 have agreed to re-arrange their programme and incorporate EOC into the competition. That competition will now include all three Sprint Disciplines of Individual Sprint, Knock-Out Sprint, and Mixed Sprint Relay.

Alongside these changes, IOF have announced updates to the remainder of the 2021 World Cup programme to better balance the overall calendar. World Cup Round 2 (forest races in Sweden) moves from the previous date of immediately before Jukola in June to take place in August instead, and World Cup Round 3 in Italy will now include a Mixed Sprint Relay.

Further details of the inclusion of sprint competitions within the 2021 World Championships are at https://orienteering.sport/nokian-tyres-world-orienteering-championships-2021-to-include-sprint-competitions/, and more information on the revised World Cup programme is at https://orienteering.sport/world-cup-2021-a-balanced-program/.

These further announcements are good news for international sprint athletes in particular, who were facing the prospect of no World Championships in Sprint until 2022 (the last was in 2018), as well as the uncertainty around Sprint EOC for 2021. British Orienteering would like to express thanks to the IOF for their perseverance in seeking solutions, and to the various event organisers for their flexibility in making it possible for suitable alternatives to be found.

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