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?

Event Programme (Version 6)

Our report on the most recent JK, in 2019.

Part of the terrain for this year's JK Middle Race (mapper squad member Ben Mitchell)

Internationally, in 2020 almost none of the races that On The Red Line tend to follow took place, but in 2021 they almost all did.

Domestically, the British NIghts took place in early 2020, and then there weren't big events until the second half of 2021.

The outlook for 2022 is however promising, with full programmes internationally and domestically

Ralph Street in a WOC Test Race, credit Petr Kadeřávek

The World Championships (WOC) in Czechia begin with Sprint Qualifications and Final on Saturday 3rd July.

The Great Britain Team has been selected. The team includes six women and seven men, and includes five athletes making their WOC debut. As the other eight all have at least three previous WOCs, it is an easy description that the team combines a lot of experience with the several newcomers.

Many congratulations from On The Red Line to the whole team and especially the WOC debutants: Alastair Thomas, Cecilie Andersen, Grace Molloy, Nathan Lawson and Peter Bray. Alastair and Grace are first year seniors. Nathan is not (yet) a member of the squad.

Czech Terrain

The World Championships in Czechia begin on the 3rd July. The first event is the Sprint, 1,064 days since the previous World Champs Sprint, in Riga in August 2018. The following day is the Sprint Relay (the same gap since the previous one). For many of the athletes that will be at least a thousand training sessions.

Had the COVID pandemic not come about these races would not be taking place. Last year there would have been a Sprint Champs. This year the Czech organizers would only be putting on races in the three forest formats, following the pattern of alternate years for forest/sprint World Champs. The sport owes a big thanks to the organizers for adding the sprints, taking on the full work of an old-style Championships. In addition to which there is a tremendous extra workload arising from COVID rules and precautions.

Britain is hoping to send a full team. This last weekend in May were the final sprint selection races for the team, and next weekend will be the final forest ones.

Fiona Bunn is one of five newcomers to the GB Senior Squad. Credit: JWOC2019 Denmark.

The GB 2020 Senior Squad was announced at the end of January, news somewhat buried by the departure of the UK from the European Union on the same day.

On The Red Line We add our congratulations to the newcomers, and we thank those leaving for their contribution in previous years.

There are 24 athletes. 18 are based in the UK and six in Scandinavia. 15 of them have run at a World Championships. Coincidentally, 24 was also the size of the initial squads announced for 2018 and 2019.

It is an achievement to be invited to join. It brings cachet. It doesn't of itself bring any financial benefit though; there is no official squad training, and it is not referenced in the selection policy. Membership may help provide evidence on the policy's additional criteria, such as commitment to a positive team environment, but it is not the only way to do that. The GB international teams can and often do select non-squad athletes. Graham Gristwood ran the long at last year's World Championships.

New to the squad this year are Adam Potter (Bristol O.K.), Ben Mitchell (Swansea Bay O.C.), Cecilie Andersen (Bristol O.K.) and Sarah Jones (Edinburgh Southern O.C.), all relatively young runners who ran in the later rounds of last year's World Cup. Another newcomer is first year senior Fiona Bunn (Thames Valley O.C.), who won two medals at last year's Junior World Championships (JWOC).

Picture: Last year's GB World Cup Team

COVID-19 As you can imagine this was written before the introduction of the extensive social distancing measures introduced as a response to the spread of the virus causing COVID-19. Many of the events described will be cancelled.

In 2020 it is the first Sprint Orienteering World Championships, with Sprint Relay, Individual Sprint and the new Knockout Sprint. Denmark host, from 6th - 11th July, with the racing in Kolding, Fredericia and Vejle.

The European Championships are hosted by Estonia centred on Rakvere, and are the week of 6th - 23rd August. They include Middle, Long and Forest Relay.

The World Champs are not included in this year's World Cup, the European Champs are (as Round 2). There are two other rounds: Switzerland 20th - 24th May is Round 1, and Italy 1st - 6th October is the World Cup Final.

The Junior World Champs are in Turkey from 28th June - 5th July.

All are accompanied by open races, providing an opportunity for spectating orienteers to take a full-on experience of running and following the international racing.

British Orienteering has published the selection policy for 2020 internationals (News Item - Senior Selection 2020). Target races are the (Sprint) World Championships, and the three rounds of the World Cup, including the (Forest) European Championships.

Only forest performances matter for forest selections, and only sprint performances matter for sprint selections.

Perhaps particularly for the various sprint disciplines - with many strong GB athletes, little racing so far in 2019, fewer spaces at the first ever sprint only World Champs, and the new knockout sprint format fully launched - it will be interesting to see how things go. On the subject of little racing the policy notes that last weekend's British Championship Sprints (a World Ranking Event, in which Kris Jones and Megan Carter-Davies had clear wins) are out of consideration because the policy is published after the races.

The nine athletes of the Great Britain Team for the 2019 World Champs. Credits: Matt Speake by Karl Orud, Jo Shepherd by WOC2018 Latvia, Charlotte Watson and Megan Carter-Davies by South London Orienteers (from the "Get up to Speed" videos), others by On The Red Line

Photo Composition: GB WOC Team 2018 by On The Red Line

The World Championships are in Latvia with races from 4th - 11th August. They are also Round 2 of the 2018 World Cup.

WOC Bulletin-3.

An IOF article in January is entitled

A very special WOC on a very special year for Latvia

The championships in Latvia will be 35th WOC and the last one in modern history of orienteering with both sprint and forest races on the programme.

The British team is quite large, with seven women and seven men, all members of the senior squad.

Of the fourteen athletes, three are selected for sprint only, three for sprint and forest, and eight for forest only. We noted in our 'one race' article how half the team, seven athletes, are concentrating on a single race.

Photo: Sasha Chepelin, at the European Championships in Switzerland, May 2018.

On May 31st several team selections were published by British Orienteering.

The GB team for the World Championships in Latvia announcement was reported in our news item yesterday.

The teams for round 3 and round 4 of the 2018 World Cup. (World Cup Round 1 was the European Champs, World Cup Round 2 is the World Champs.)

The team for the World Universities Championships.

The team for Euromeeting in Denmark.

How do these fit with the 2018 international calendar and the twenty-four squad athletes?

Photo: Megan Carter-Davies, in University of Bristol colours, at the JK, Easter 2018, by Robert Lines.

British Orienteering has published the GB team for the World Championships (WOC).

On The Red Line congratulates the fourteen athletes and wishes them well for the next two months of training and for the racing in Latvia in early August.

All have previously represented Great Britain at World Championships. In fact, only the youngest member of the team, Megan Carter-Davies, who debuted last year, has not done so more than once.

The Sprint Relay team is the team that won the sprint relay at the World Universities Orienteering Championships in Miskolc, Hungary two years ago.

The Swedish test races are this weekend; three weeks before the European Championships (and two weeks before TioMila.) Friday 13th - Sprint. Saturday 14th - Long. Sunday 15th - Middle. All are World Ranking Events. This post will be updated with news and further links as the weekend progresses.

Monday morning: this post is now updated with results.

Test Races website.

18th April: Updated with news of Swedish team.

The biennial European Championships (EOC) take place in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, 5th - 13th May 2018.

The British team was announced last Friday.

As test races complete other teams are being announced.

Following the JK selection races, British Orienteering today announced the GB Team for the European Championships in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, 5th - 13th May.

Other countries are on the same track - please "continue reading" for information about selection races in Switzerland and Norway this weekend and Tuesday 10th, with links to live results and GPS

Good luck to the GB athletes; may the next four weeks of final preparation (and TioMila) go well.

On 27th November 2017 British Orienteering announced a squad of 24 athletes for 2018. New members are all from the Scottish Orienteering Association: Kirstin Maxwell of Roxburgh Reivers, and first-year seniors Jennifer Ricketts and Sasha Chepelin both of Edinburgh University.

The Squad's primary target is the World Championships. Membership of the squad does not offer any financial or service benefits.

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.

Support

Author: Sarah Brown

The GB Orienteers are very grateful for the support they receive from clubs and regions.

Jo Shepherd is one of 12 athletes gaining early selection for the British team at the European Championships. Jo is selected for sprint, middle and forest relay.

To see all the early selections for the European Champs please see our 2018 calendar article or the 21st December announcement on the British Orienteering website.