Follow the athletes as they look to qualify for the Knock-Out Sprint Finals later today and repeat their success from Sunday.
Heats can be followed here.
Interview with GB's Silver Medal Winning Sprint Relay Team after World Orienteering Champs 2022.
Athletes Charlotte Ward, Ralph Street, Kris Jones, Megan Carter-Davies.
Interviewer Katherine Bett.
Production by @OnTheRedLineO.
Great Britain take Silver in the Mixed Sprint Relay at the World Orienteering Championships, Denmark.
Sunday saw the first race of the World Orienteering Championships, the Mixed Sprint Relay. Taking place in the complex old city centre of Kolding Denmark, the route choice involved railway and river as well as narrow streets, alleyways, and backyards.
The GB team of Charlotte Ward, Ralph Street, Kris Jones, and Megan Carter-Davies was going into the Championships as one of the strong contenders for a medal, especially after a good performance in World Cup 1, where the team was also hit by illness.
Charlotte Ward (GB) ran a confident and strong first Leg handing over to Ralph Street (GB) in 3rd place. The race was already thought to be both physically and navigationally challenging but during the second Leg, several of the international teams made an unexpected error that cost 30-45 seconds. Ralph however demonstrated his strong navigational skills to not follow the pack but make his own route choice which saw him hand over to Kris Jones (GB) in 2nd place.
Kris Jones (GB) who showed exceptional performances on the track last year, ran a great leg to hand over to Megan Carter-Davies (GB) in 1st place, with World Champion Tove Alexandersson (SWE) starting close behind. Alexandersson once again demonstrated her usual strength and speed, and although Megan kept her within sight for a good proportion of the course, she finished well ahead after the final forking.
This is the first Relay medal won at the World Championships since 2008 and hopefully the start of a great Championship.
Sprint Relay results
1. Sweden (Lina Strand, Max Peter Bejmer, Gustav Bergman, Tove Alexandersson)
2. Great Britain (Charlotte Ward, Ralph Street, Kris Jones, Megan Carter Davies) + 1.02
3. Norway (Ane Dyrkorn, Lukas Liland, Kasper Fosser, Andrine Benjaminsen) + 1.41
4. Switzerland + 1.47
5. Denmark + 1.49
6. France + 1.52
Results and more can be found at IOF LIVE.
Congratulations to the GB team…Charlotte Ward, Ralph Street, Kris Jones, Megan Carter-Davies.
Fantastic result! Well done, and very well deserved.
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The next event is the Knock-Out Sprint on Tuesday (28 June), with a qualification in the morning and quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals in the afternoon.
The Knock-Out Sprint event saw Megan Carter-Davies bring home a silver medal in the recent World Cup 1, behind Alexandersson (SWE), and will also have GB Ralph Street, Kris Jones, and Charlotte Ward joined by GB Jonathan Crickmore and GB Grace Molloy.
Follow the competition at IOF LIVE - Knock-Out Sprint
The Individual Sprint will take place this Thursday (30 June).
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All photo credits: IOF / William Hollowell
British Orienteering's Development Conference - January 2022
On Monday British Orienteering was delighted to kick off the 2022 Development Conference with a session on Engaging and Retaining Young People, presented by Fran Loots a Regional Development Officer from the Scottish Orienteering Association. This was an interactive session where delegates were able to share as well as take some ideas back to our clubs. This first session was fully booked so a waiting list has been made for an additional session which Fran has very kindly offered to present on Wednesday 2 February – and this session is already filling up.
It was Pauline Tryner’s turn on Thursday evening to help focus our attention on Creating a Whole Club Experience. With her unique perspective as the Club Development Officer, Pauline talked through the development journey of her club, South Yorkshire Orienteers. One main message from this was, South Yorkshire Orienteers is not the same club now as it was 10 years ago and it does require persistent effort – if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try and try again – not using the same methods each time but evolve your efforts and ideas. Also, focus your efforts on one thing at a time within your capabilities.
Both these sessions were recorded and will be available to watch shortly on the British Orienteering Webinar page under Training & Support.
This coming week there are three sessions planned. On Monday (17 January) we can look forward to hearing about the work of the Orienteering Foundation to help clubs with Retaining Beginner Orienteers. It will be great to hear from Neil Cameron who will flesh out the bones of the Newcomer Retention Project report which Clubs will have recently received.
Tuesday's session (18 January) uses the case study of Cleveland Orienteering Klub, looking at the value of employing a Club Development Officer (CDO) and the process of how clubs can go about this using Orienteering Foundation support.
In the third session of the week, on Wednesday (19 January), we will be looking at Access and Permissions through the eyes of an ecologist and landowner, Forestry England. A better understanding and good working relationship will hopefully advise and support clubs with future applications.
This coming week we have just shy of 200 people registered to attend the sessions – there are still places, so why not sign up now!