Will Gardner (L), Nathan Lawson (R), of Octavian Droobers (OD) after the Sprint Race in Armagh where they were 2nd and 1st respectively (photo: OD Twitter)

The 10 Day Emerald Isle Orienteering Festival culminated in the British Sprint Champs on Saturday 6th May, and the British Middle Distance Champs on Sunday 7th. The sprints were a qualifier and final pair of races, held in Armagh. The middles were at Drumkeeragh Forest, just inside the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Thanks to the clubs of the Northern Ireland Orienteering Association, and indeed all the volunteers who put on the extensive programme of events.

Nathan Lawson won both men's titles, and Fiona Bunn, returned from international duty the previous weekend, won both Women's.

Full Results - British Sprint and Middle Champs

Peter Bray, running in after 17.8km and 480m climb, photo: Wendy Carlyle

The new British Champions are Peter Taylor-Bray and Julie Emmerson.who took the wins in the open classes at the British Long Champs on Saturday 25th March 2023.

The races were in rolling mixed woodland at Cold Ash in Berkshire, as used for the JK2019 Long Race.

The day afterwards, the British Relay races were held at Hambleden Woods near Henley-on-Thames. The premier class relays were won by the Coventry club Octavian Droobers (men) and Edinburgh University (women).

Team GB, The World Games 2022: Cecilie Andersen, Ralph Street, Jonathan Crickmore and Charlotte Ward

Early Sunday morning 17th July, on the last day of The World Games, the GB Team won the bronze medals in the Sprint Relay.

The racing was in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. It was the third day of racing. On Friday it had been individual sprint and on Saturday a forest middle race. Both had been in hot and humid conditions. It was not quite as hot for the relay, but still many of the runners poured water over themselves before running.

There was free internet TV. Using that, with the kind permission of the IOF, we have made a five minute summary video of the race from a GB perspective.

After the race the GB team talked about the race.

Team GB, The World Games 2022: Cecilie Andersen, Ralph Street, Jonathan Crickmore and Charlotte Ward

On 15th, 16th and 17th July there are three top-notch international orienteering races as part of the World Games in BIrmingham, Alabama.

The races are a sprint, a middle and a sprint relay. The races are on internet TV (free.) Birmingham is about the same latitude as Tunis and at this time of year it is hot and humid, with a risk of storms later in the day, so races are early local time. First starts: 3pm UK-time.

The Games has places for 80 orienteering athletes, 40 men and 40 women, and these go mostly to teams of 4 from leading countries, and partly to individual champions. Britain selected athletes (from those available) with an emphasis on the two sprint races rather than the forest middle, but the old map for the latter looks as if it will be a great area. All four, Cecilie Andersen, Ralph Street, Jonathan Crockmore and Charlotte Ward, like most British athletes, have higher world rankings in sprint than in forest. (In fact Charlotte, World ranking 21 in sprint, does not have a forest ranking.)

Megan Carter-Davies jumps on the World Champion's Podium, photo: On The Red Line

The GB Orienteering Team had a tremendously successful World Orienteering Championships 2022.

Megan Carter-Davies is the World Champion in the Individual Sprint. She also won the silver medal in the new Knockout Sprint format, and a silver medal in the Sprint Relay.

The other members of the silver medal winning relay team are Charlotte Ward, Ralph Street and Kris Jones.

Alice Leake won the bronze medal in the individual sprint.

Britain had won a medal at a World Orienteering Championship eleven times previously, most recently in 2013, by Scott Fraser. It was the most successful GB team performance ever.

Leeds Beckett University hosted the Sprint Relay at the Carnegie Sports Centre

On Saturday 11th June, Forth Valley Orienteers team of Scarlett Kelly, Chris Smithard, Kris Jones and Grace Molloy won the British Sprint Relay Championship Race. They won by just over a minute from Edinburgh University with last year's champions South Yorkshire Orienteers a further 15 seconds behind.

27 teams were on the start line, and when non-eligible runners, incomplete teams and mispunches were all taken into account, 12 teams were all complete in the results (representing 10 clubs).

On Sunday Megan Carter-Davies and Kris Jones won the Individual Sprint Championships in the two race qualifiers/finals format..

photo: Rob Lines

The British Long Distance Champions for 2022 are Megan Carter-Davies and Graham Gristwood.

The British Relays were won by South Yorkshire (Women) and Forth Valley (Men.)

The British Champs Weekend

On Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th March, the British Champs 2022 were south-west of London near the Surrey/Hampshire border in an area not previously used for orienteering. The same arena was used for both days, with Day 1 called "Golden Valley and Cognor Woods" and Day 2 called "Iron Hill and Parkgate Rough".

from British Orienteering website, image: mapper Dave Peel.

With the weather set fair, the British Long Distance Champs are on Saturday March 26th, using an area new to orienteering south-west of London. There's a strong field including 59 names on the M21E startlist. The course is 16.6km with 815m climb; with the recommended winning time of 90-100 minutes. There are 18 entries on W21E for 11.3km with 495m climb and a winning time of 70-80 minutes.

The British Relays are the following day, using the same arena.

The British NIghts and the British Middles have taken place, the former in the very opposite of fair weather.

The British Night Championships were held on Saturday evening in the woods at Hambleden, a shooting estate on the north bank of the Thames near Henley. The estate was the location for two days of the Easter JK festival in 2013 (the middle and the relay),and had not been used since.

The fast hilly woodland proved great for the Night Championships. Our thanks to hosts Thames Valley O.C. who did a very good job. There was quite a buzz in the crowded and warm marquee after the race as the final runners came in, and results were readied for the prizegiving. The organiser was John Dalton, planner was Neville Baker and controller Alan Rosen. Results were posted online through the evening.

British Champions 2019, Photo: Rob Lines

Today is the 1st June and as the vegetation in the forests gets high the orienteering season for many of the leading British runners passes from a domestic focus to an overseas one. Most of the big domestic competitions (the "major events") have been run, and the first senior international races, in Finland, are next weekend. That is World Cup Round 1, which also includes a sprint relay in the centre of Helsinki the following Tuesday The weekend after is Jukola and Venla. These relays have a record entry of over 20,000 this year - the organisers attribute it partly to the "growth ... of fitness orienteering". In early July, test races for the World Champs take part, after which the British team will be selected. The World Champs themselves are forest disciplines only, in Norway in August, just after the Scottish 6-Days. And then, with more of a sprint focus, there are World Cup Round 3 (September, Switzerland) and 4 (October, China).

2018 Jukola After Movie.

British Champs Podium, Kilnsey May 5th 2019, credit: On The Red Line

All Results Index Page

The British Champions 2019 are Alasdair McLeod and Megan Carter-Davies. The Championships were held on the open moorland of Arncliffe and Kilnsey North on May 5th 2019.

The Sprint Relay champions are Edinburgh University.

The Forest Relay champions are

• Men: Airienteers
• Women: South Yorkshire.

Picture: Overhead shot of a GB Runner orienteering

Link to the "Get Up To Speed" Videos.

South London Orienteers have, with funding from Sport England, produced a series of eight short videos illustrating techniques used in orienteering. The videos are filmed in different locations and each is presented by a member of the GB Team. The aim of the series is to help juniors deal with more technically demanding courses, but these films can also be used to help newcomers to the sport. Each video focuses on a specific orienteering skill.

Videos are being released on Fridays (5 pm UK-time) in January and February.

Image: Wikipedia Commons.

Friday 21st - Sunday 23rd September is Euromeeting in Denmark, a runup event for the 2020 World Championships..

Euromeeting Bulletin 2.

On Friday, 3pm UK-time, there is a Sprint Relay from Arena Kolding North.

On Saturday there is knockout sprint, with a qualification race in the morning, and then quarter-finals. semi-finals and finals from 2pm UK-time at Arena Assens.

On Sunday, from 9am UK-time, there is a sprint race in the Christiansfeld UNESCO World Heritage Site, founded in 1773 by the Moravian Church and largely built in the years up to 1800.

Update Sunday Results Added.

Update + 1 week England Team Manager's Report

The perhaps self-contradictory term "Home International" is used in the British Isles to describe sports competitions amongst national teams England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. In many sports Ireland teams are "all-Ireland" combining talent from the Republic and Northern Ireland (which is part of the United Kingdom.)

The first were football matches in the last decades of the Nineteenth Century - see Wikipedia - the British Home Championship.

In orienteering there are three "home internationals" and this weekend is the Senior Home International. It is organised by Pendle Forest Orienteers near Burnley in the north of England. Teams are 18 strong, six men and six women in the open class, and three men and three women 20 or under.

British Sprint Championships

Bath University, Saturday 1st September

Photo: The Prizegiving, by Steve Rush

Full Results

Women (Women Open A Final)

Image: section from a previous map

Followers of the GB Orienteers need to have their eyes in more than one place this coming weekend, with World Cup forest races taking place in Norway ( starting on Friday, preview - World Cup Round 3 ) and the British Sprint and the British Middle Distance Championships being hosted by the South West Orienteering Association, Bristol Orienteering Klub and North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club.

Saturday is the sprints, Sunday the middle distance.

Image: from the special notes explaining the lower service area level at Bath University.

Followers of the GB Orienteers need to have their eyes in more than one place this coming weekend, with World Cup forest races taking place in Norway ( starting on Friday, preview - World Cup Round 3 ) and the British Sprint and the British Middle Distance Championships being hosted by the South West Orienteering Association, Bristol Orienteering Klub and North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club, near Bath.

Saturday is the sprints, Sunday the middle distance.

Jo Shepherd of Inverness O.C. and Halden SK won the British Champs race at Balmoral on Saturday 19th.

The men's champion is Peter Hodkinson of Nottinghamshire O.C. and Lillomarka OL.

For both Jo and Peter it is a first win of the British Long or Classic distance champs.

Sunday's British Champs relays were both won by Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO).

Image: Extract of previous map of the Balmoral Estate

On The Red Line editorial note: please click on an athlete's name for more information - this will be one of On The Red Line, World of O, IOF Eventor or the Archive of British Orienteering Records.

This weekend sees the British Long Distance Championships at Balmoral Estate. The area was previously used for RacetheCastles in 2014 and the Scottish Championships in 2016 and offers a beautiful venue with good technical challenge in a variety of high quality terrain.

Event parking and the race arena are close to Balmoral Castle itself. Thanks go to Her Majesty the Queen and Balmoral Estates for allowing orienteering to use the area and in particular to Garry Marsden, Estate Visitor Enterprise Manager for his great co-operation.

(Photo: Ali McLeod winning the JK, credit Steve Rush)

The British Long Championships are on Saturday 19th at the Balmoral Estate in North Scotland. If the name is familiar it is probably because the castle is the Scottish holiday home to the Royal Family. Since a Royal Prince is marrying in Windsor near London that day however the estate will likely be quiet. And the weather forecast is good.

This post has some pictures of leading runners taken at recent European Champs ( linked to profiles.)

(update) Jon Cross has written a preview of the championship races, now published as an Article.

For Team GB it is the several rounds of the World Cup that defines the competitions. The rounds are hosted in different countries, and the programme is different each year. This year there are four rounds in all. The first round is the European Championships (EOC). The second round is the annual World Championships (WOC).

The European Championships are every two years. 2018 is a year for them - they are in Switzerland, in May.

This is the last year that the World Championships includes all disciplines. From 2019 forest and sprint will alternate. This year WOC is in Latvia in August.

The combination of an all disciplines World Championships and a European Championships makes 2018 the best year to further develop the interest of supporters and spectators in international orienteering.