Written by Martin Ward, UKOL Coordinator.
Comprising a series of high-quality events across the UK from February to November, the league has objectives of encouraging greater participation at a national level and thus increasing the quality of competition, while providing races in a variety of terrain types.
In 2024 the league consisted of 26 races in total, with the Individual competition being based on competitors' best 8 scores. With fifty points being awarded to the winner of each race in each age category, the maximum possible score for the season was therefore 400 points. Congratulations to the nine people who achieved that incredible result this year! They were Kirsten Strain (W35), Sarah Rollins (W45), Christine Kiddier (W70), Eleanor Pyrah (W80), Jenny Thompson (W85), Quentin Harding (M60), Keith Tonkin (M65), John Embrey (M65), Roger Maher (M85).In the Clubs competition, which takes a club's top 15 scorers from a range of age categories, it was another winning year for South Yorkshire Orienteers (SYO) with 5,641 points, ahead of South Ribble (SROC) on in second on 5,360 points, and Southern Navigators in third on 4,925.
The full list of winners in each age category, and the top 20 clubs, are shown below. The prize-giving for individual class winners will take place at JK 2025 in South Yorkshire next Easter.
The 2025 UKOL season kicks off with a pair of events hosted by Forth Valley Orienteers on 8th and 9th February, which includes the British Night Championships followed by a Regional Event. Entries are open now.
There has been a change to the UKOL rules for 2025 to extend the age categories up to M95 and W95, to ensure we can celebrate the success of our oldest competitors in the competition!