This week will have seen many of our 14 and 16 age class Scottish juniors away exploring the delights of Lagganlia or Deeside with the Junior Regional Orienteering Squads (JROS) with older juniors getting ready to take part in camps in Czechia, Stockholm and Gothenburg.

For juniors it is a week of intensive training in some really interesting terrain combined with games and lots of other fun! For parents they get a week of peace followed by the return of a very tired but contented kid who might after quite a lot of sleep tell them tales of adventures and new friends but brings with them what seems like a month’s supply of dirty orienteering and other kit.

We know that the right person for the Senior Development post is out there but feedback tells us we should have made the application deadline later to let everyone enjoy their summer orienteering experiences! We have therefore extended the deadline to 31st August for applications.

It is now just a 6 weeks until the World Masters Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Moray. There are 4 days of competition following the registration day on Tuesday 8^th September.

The Summer of Sport 2026 is a major programme led by sportscotland, designed to encourage children and young people across Scotland to participate in sport and physical activity. 

The SOA Financial Statements for the year to 31 December 2025 have now been finalised and approved, and are attached. A finance report to accompany these accounts will be included in the AGM papers.

We are notifying all members of our intended Annual General Meeting date of Monday 14th September 2026. The Annual General Meeting will be held online at 7pm.  There will be a proxy vote option for those unable to attend. 

Today marks exactly a month until the next East Area training session which will take place at Heriot Watt University on the 22nd August. From the start of this year we have changed the format of East Area training, making the training a full day with different training groups from TD1-TD5 including an adults groups. 

Each year SOA organises a day for club members from across Scotland to come together to share experiences and ideas around developing orienteering. These days are very much for everyone (not just committee members) – if you’re interested in orienteering and supporting your club, then please do come along.

This year we will be running two in-person Club Networking days this year, to widen opportunities for club members across Scotland to participate. 

• Saturday 12th September – Dunblane (Braeport Centre)
• Saturday 19th September – Boat of Garten (Community Hall)

Anyone is very welcome to attend either one (or both!)

Every 2 years ScotJOS organises a training tour to Sweden for all its junior members. This year a record 37 juniors (aged 14 to 18)  took part assisted by 10 adults.

Read on to find out more about their adventures ….

Not scale of map – but scale of event!

With hundreds of events each year in Scotland – from local come and try it formats to the Scottish Championships there are a wealth of orienteering opportunities available on our doorsteps. However, many of our members venture further afield each year to sample large orienteering events around the world and meet others from the orienteering family. We highlight some of these opportunities so you can follow what your club mates may be up to this summer and to help you plan for future adventures.

SOA Safety Director, Tim O’Donoghue, reflects on managing risks during urban orienteering, and suggests some steps for individual orienteers and clubs to take, to reduce risks from collisions.

Urban events in a variety of formats have become an established part of orienteering over the last 15 or so years, to the extent that in alternate years the World Championships focus on sprint style events, normally in an urban environment.  The level of technical difficulty is frequently lower than in traditional orienteering terrain and the emphasis is on speed – speed of decision making and running speed.