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Results are in from yesterday's British Middle Distance Championships!
Access provisional results via this link or for a full breakdown, visit the AIRE website.
Well done to all winners and to everyone who took part this weekend!
Mapping is the one of the most rewarding and enjoyable roles. Not only does it improve your navigation skills, but it can also provide you with a different and new type of orienteering challenge.
The British Orienteering E-Learning Mapping Courses, Introduction to updating Forest Mapping and Introduction to Sprint and Urban Mapping , developed with the expertise of David Olivant (Nottinghamshire Orienteering Club) and the educational robustness of Pauline Olivant (Nottinghamshire Orienteering Club) .
Both courses are based around learners having access to either of the two most widely used mapping programs, Open Orienteering Mapper and OCAD.
We strongly advise that you seek an experienced mapper as a mentor to support you through your journey towards being a competent mapper.
Both courses are based on updating an existing map and rather than creating a new map from a previously unmapped area.
Course objectives
- To provide an introduction and basic understanding of the processes involved in how to update and amend an existing Orienteering map.
The course content is designed to only address the course objective rather than attempting to cover the full scope of Mapping. As we recognise that Mapping is a skill that takes much time and practice to hone.
The course should only take around 45- 60 mins to complete and for the whole of May is only £6.00
To access the course and find out more information about our other E-Learning courses, please visit the E-Learning homepage.
Interested in learning about our other E-Learning courses on offer? Visit the E-Learning homepage and access information on all the other resources we provide.
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!
Report by Katherine Ivory, member of Interlopers (INT).
Interlopers Event held at Mortonhall on 3 October 2020.
Despite the torrential all-day rain, Interlopers held its first event since lockdown on Saturday 3 October, with a Level D event on the Mortonhall estate in South Edinburgh. We were delighted to welcome back around eighty runners from a range of clubs for light-green, orange, and yellow courses.
We had originally been hoping to hold our re-start event a month previously at Colinton Dell, but City of Edinburgh Council was not (and still is not) granting permission for any events in the public spaces they manage. Instead we turned this set of courses (planned for May) into a virtual event using MaprunF, with competitors running in their own time over the course of a week. The variable stances of landowners on holding events again has been a considerable issue for arranging our club’s programme now, and we were very grateful to the Mortonhall Camping and Caravan Park for granting us permission.
Covid risk management requirements meant of course some differences compared to how we had normally run a level-D ‘come and try it’ event. Typically, these are informal, with competitors simply turning up on the day, and a lot of chat to welcome newcomers and catch up with friends. For this event, all entries needed to be made in advance, via a simple online booking form in Googleforms which worked very well. Payment was taken on the day in named envelopes. We were happy to be able to open the event to everyone and anyone, rather than just our own club as would have been the case back in September. It was great to see familiar faces from other local clubs as well as new recruits to Edinburgh University Orienteering Club, and some newcomers who had been looking for a new activity to try with other activities currently not happening.
‘Social-distancing’ was the watch-phrase, and everyone was allocated a start time to avoid gatherings at the start. Hand sanitiser was provided at registration, simple entry-fee drop-off and dibber collection if required, and download. Runners were asked to hand-sanitise before picking up their map and running. We also kept our volunteer count to a minimum to reduce the number of people on the ground. Normally we would have been very active in helping newcomers, but instead offered online pre-event chats by Zoom, with a Power-point pack of photos of what to expect and showing what a dibber and control look like, for example). This worked very well. Runners were able to take away their splits but otherwise, to avoid clustering, had to wait for these to go up online that evening on the Interlopers website (www.interlopers.org.uk). To compensate a bit for the lack of opportunities for event-chat for club members, we had an online post-event Zoom social and quiz the following evening.
Given the wet weather, kit-drying was very much required – but quarantining it for 72 hours as part of our risk-management measures.
Obviously, some entrants were unable to attend on the day, and we were extremely grateful to those who stayed away as requested if they had any symptoms. We have now put all three courses into MaprunF in the Edinburgh O folder in the app, and on the Scottish Orienteering Association webpage here, and allow those who had to miss the event to still run the courses in their own time.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in our first event since lock-down, braving the weather and mud for some orienteering again! As usual, this was a true club endeavour with a large number of Interloper volunteers working behind the scenes and on the day to make it happen. We hope to hold our next event at Dechmont Law on Sunday 8 November.
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Celebrating the re-start of orienteering.
What activities or events has your club organised? Have you recently attended a re-start event? Was it your second or third? How did you find it?
Permanent Orienteering Courses are a great way to enjoy the outdoors in a socially distanced way. Maybe you have downloaded a Permanent Orienteering and/or Virtual Orienteering Course and enjoyed it with your family? However, you have been taking part in orienteering, share your experiences and inspire others.
Send your news snippets and photos to Jennie Taylor Communications Officer.
Email: jtaylor@britishorienteering.org.uk
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To view the current British Orienteering Guidance visit:
https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/COVID19_Safe_Orienteering
#StaySafe
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