Over 1250 orienteers participated in the British Orienteering Championships Weekend

Report by Helen Errington and Andrew Evans (Weekend Coordinators) 

Over 1250 orienteers participated in the British Orienteering Championships Weekend in glorious sunshine near Liphook by the Hampshire/Sussex border on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 March.

The Long courses mainly headed east from the centrally located arena field across land generously made available to us by seven different landowners and two tenant farmers.  It had taken several years to arrange access to this area new to orienteering.  Mike Elliot (Mole Valley Orienteering Club) courses were fair but challenging with considerable climbs and a lot of variety of terrain.  Storm Eunice had made a few areas much more difficult to cross than had originally been expected; some very late adjustments to Dave Peel’s map highlighted the main areas of wind blow. Graham Gristwood (Forth Valley Orienteers) and Megan Carter-Davies (Mid Wales Orienteering Club) were convincing winners in M/W21E by 7 and 5 minutes respectively.

The Relay teams headed west taking in the Forestry England land on interesting courses set by Tony Burton (Mole Valley Orienteers).  Like the Long, the 620 participants had a steep climb to finish their courses but the benefit was a field that drained well enough for confidence that the event could be held successfully in March.

Day Organisers Charles Spence (London Orienteering Klub) and Neil and Sue Crickmore (Southdowns Orienteers) for the Long and Relays respectively had meticulously planned all aspects of the delivery and everything went remarkably smoothly throughout the weekend.  Prizes and medals were kindly presented on each day by one of the primary landowners.

All of us in the South East Orienteering Association are grateful to the South West Orienteering Association for moving their British Orienteering Championships forward to 2021 freeing up this weekend for the re-staging of the event cancelled less than one week before the event was due to take place in 2020.

Photo: British Long Orienteering Champions 2022:  Graham Gristwood (Forth Valley Orienteers) and Megan Carter-Davies (Swansea Bay Orienteering Club)

British Relay Champions 2022

Photo:  Left: 
Winners:  Laura Goy, Kim Baxter, Cat Taylor (South Yorkshire Orienteers)

2nd:  Fiona Bunn, Chloe Cracknell, Mairi Eades (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club)

3rd:  Frida Forshallen, Katherine Bett, Sarah Rollins (Southern Navigators)

Photo: Right: 

Winners: Peter Molloy, Chris Smithard, Graham Gristwood (Forth Valley Orienteers)

2nd: Peter Hodkinson, Alasdair Pedley, Matthew Gooch (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club)

3rd: Philip Vokes, Duncan Birtwistle, Nathan Lawson (Octavian Droobers)

Photo credits:  Rob Lines (Southdowns Orienteers)

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Long Results are available here.

Relay Results are available here.

TrailO Results are available here.

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Congratulations to all the medal winners! 

British Orienteering would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers and all individuals from surrounding clubs for their hard work and efforts in pulling this event together for all orienteers to enjoy.  Thank you.