Grace Molloy, photo: Jiri Cech, Český svaz orientačních sportů
After the Sprint and Sprint Relay the World Cup Round in Czechia switched to the forest. On Saturday 5th August it was a Middle Distance, and on Sunday 6th August a Long Distance. These were the last forest races in the World Cup until after next year's Sprint World Championships in Edinburgh. The next 10 international races, four competition rounds, at World Cup / World Champs level, are in Sprint of one sort or another.
In general in the forest the GB athletes had quite good technical races, but the physicality of the courses did not suit them. Almost all the running required climb or descent (and often both) or contouring on often steep slopes.
Česká Lípa is the location for World Cup Round 2
Close to where the 2021 World Champs races were, and like then with both sprint and forest races on the programme, Česká Lípa in Czechia hosts World Cup Round 2. It's the third of the four big international competitions in the year. World Cup Round 1 (Norway) and the World Champs (Switzerland) have passed and the European Champs in Sprint (Italy) are ahead in early October.
GB has a team of 14 athletes. Britain has six places for the sprint, middle and long races, and can enter three sprint relay teams. It is expected that most of the athletes will run all the races: Sprint, Sprint Relay, Middle Distance and Long Distance.
IOF Eventor - World Cup Round 2
There are accompanying spectator races under the label Kwak Czech O-Tour.
Steep terrain for the World Champs long races (the sight looking from control 8 on the women's course)
The World Champs Long Races in Switzerland lived up to expectations with very challenging physical courses, difficult route choices and superb performances by several athletes.
The highlight for the British team was Megan Carter-Davies's seventh place, an exceptionally good result, and close behind the bronze medallist. The other British athletes had sound races. Cecilie Andersen and Jo Shepherd were 30th and 31st respectively. Peter Bray and Joshua Dudley were 37th and 39th respectively.
Continue reading...
One of this year's trophies, from the World Championships Bulletin-4
On Wednesday 12th July the racing in the 2023 World Champs (WOC) begins. The Champs are at Flims-Laax in the mountain canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The competition will be top-notch and the scenery will be stunning.
Continue reading...
Capri, the World Champs 2023 Mascot, on stage at the World Champs 2022
World Champs 2024 Selection (Test) Races, 3rd, 4th, 6th June.
Flims Laax, best known as a ski resort, hosts the Orienteering World Champs in July. The Champs are being held in conjunction with the Swiss-O Week.
Switzerland has a well-earned reputation for organising orienteering. This encompasses major international competitions of the sort we report, but also mass participation festivals. This year the 6-day Swiss-O week starts the same day as the WOC Relay on July 16th and runs to the 22nd. It has already hit the day 3 capacity of 4000 runners: the capacity of the Mountain Railway!
Continue reading...
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).
Continue reading...
Ralph Street on his way to 13th in the Middle Final, photo: Fred Härtelt
The European Orienteering Championships for 2022 took place in Estonia and were for the forest disciplines. The medal races were the 4th, 6th and 7th August.
Eventor - Orienteering World Cup Round 2 and European Championships 2022
All races used the same arena, in the Põlula forest, near Rakvere, midway between Tallinn and the Russian border. For the previous European Championships, back pre-COVID in 2018 and covering more disciplines GB had a team of 17 including only one runner outside the 25-30 age group. This time Britain took 13 athletes, but it was much more slanted towards development. Our preview article on the team
Capri, the World Champs 2023 Mascot, on stage at the World Champs 2022
The sprint racing that has filled the international calendar so far this year is done. This week it's the second round of the 2022 World Cup, the European Championships. All races are in tough forest in Estonia: long (classic), middle and relay races.
Fourteen athletes are in the British Team, seven women and seven men. It's a larger and also much less experienced team than went to the (Sprint) World Championships in Denmark in June.
Congratulations to Rachel Brown, Chloe Potter, Peter Molloy and Joe Woodley who make World Cup debuts. Rachel and Peter are W/M20.
Continue reading...
The WOC2023 Mascot, Capri, photo: copyright steineggerpix.com + woc 2023, by Thomi Studhalter
It was to Swiss mountain forests of the Flims-Laax valley for the World Orienteering Championships 2023. The courses were both as physical and technical as expected and the races threw few surprises in the medallists:.Tove Alexandersson and Matthias Kyburz both won two golds and a silver. They lost out in the long to the golden couple of Simona Aebersold and Kasper Fosser. The weather was heavy at times, but did not get as bad as two different days the next week, when the 5000 runner Swiss-O week cancelled races up the mountains because of dangerous storms.
The JK2022 Individual Podium
The JK Champions for 2022 are Megan Carter-Davies and Sasha Chepelin.
The JK Relays were won by Swansea Bay (Women) and Octavian Droobers (Men), both for the first time.
The JK Sprints were won by Alice Leake and Sasha Chepelin
Continue reading...
Part of the terrain for this year's JK Middle Race (mapper squad member Ben Mitchell)
The "JK", the biggest annual festival in the UK orienteering calendar, held every year at Easter, is back and upon us. We really missed it in 2020 and 2021. This year the Welsh Association are hosting, and some of the areas used are the same as in 2014 when they previously hosted.. How's the winter training gone? Have you got everything planned out and have you read through 37 pages of programme? How did you fare on your big weekends in the Winter and early Spring?
Our report on the most recent JK, in 2019.
Continue reading...
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".
Continue reading...
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.
Continue reading...The 2019 Nokian Tyres World Orienteering Championships (WOC) took place in Østfold, Norway from 13th - 17th August. Østfold is the county of the south-east part of Norway, between Oslo and Sweden. The event centre was the city of Sarpsborg. The Championships were very well organised, and the accompanying spectator races were also well attended.
British Champs Podium, Kilnsey May 5th 2019, credit: On The Red Line
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.
JK2019 Middle Distance Prizewinners, credit: Iain Shepherd
The 2019 took place in central Southern England from April 19th - 22nd.
- Friday was a World Ranking Sprint Race at Aldershot Garrison
- Saturday was a World Ranking Middle Distance Race at Old Windmill Hill
- Sunday was a Long Distance Race at Cold Ash
- Monday was the JK Relays, the biggest UK relays competition, at Minley.
The weather was exceptionally warm and dry, and everything about the competition was very good, except the results service and timing which were not up to it.
(It's late Tuesday evening now, and "All results are now under review and will be published as soon as they are validated.")
Top three in the Women's Overall enjoying the weather, credit: Iain Shepherd
Dave Rollins and Heather Monro
There was no prizegiving for the the racing at Cold Ash today but there was a presentation by past members of the British team, represented by Heather Monro (ran at 8 x WOC, and a bronze medal in 2005) to former manager Dave Rollins who led many GB international trips.
The provisional results - today only (not the two days combined)
Women:
- Megan Carter-Davies
- Cecilie Andersen
- Lizzie Ingham
Men:
- Chris Smithard
- Will Gardner
- Peter Bray
Photo: Kris Jones in last year's World Champs Forest Relay, by Janis Ligats for WOC2018 Latvia.
(This is a republication of a post inadvertently deleted, although given how Kris's predictions turned out - not entirely Kris's fault with both tipped men not starting - we perhaps need not have bothered )
Kris Jones is not running the JK this year. He is currently recovering and training in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kris wrote about his injury for "Fast Running".
Kris provides his thoughts about the racing, and bravely predicts which of his fellow GB athletes might take the wins.
The 2018 World Championships took place in Latvia (celebrating 100 years) from 4th - 11th August. The event was based in Riga and Sigulda. The Championships were supported by Nokian Tyres.
This was the last all-disciplines World Championships. Next year it will be the Forest races (Norway), in 2020 the Sprint races (Denmark.)
Britain sent a team of 14 athletes. They achieved one podium place, in the men's relay.
Full results are in IOF Eventor - WOC2018 and results and photographs are also at the Latvia World Champs site. An index of our news reports and a summary of British results follows below.
See also the virtual arena (with links to many GB photos) at Maprunner WOC 2018
Continue reading...
Photo: Alan Cherry finishes in the Long Race WOC2018, credit Janis Ligats / WOC2018 Latvia
Women
- Tove Alexandersson, Sweden
- Maja Alm, Denmark ,
- Sabine Hauswirth, Switzerland
British runners:
> 25. Jessica Tullie,
> 28. Charlotte Watson,
> 31. Jo Shepherd.
Kris Jones wins Sprint Bronze
Photo: Kris Jones on the run through the arena (On The Red Line)
Photo: GB team; athletes, manager and support staff, Hollie Orr not present (Source: Kirstin Maxwell Twitter)
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).
Continue reading...The 2017 World Championships took place in Estonia from 1st - 7th July. The event was based in Tartu. The Championships were supported by Nokian Tyres.
Britain sent a team of 16 athletes. They achieved one podium place, in the sprint relay.
Full results are at the Estonian World Champs site. A summary of British results follows below.
Continue reading...