Category: News

The University of Bristol hosted this year's British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Orienteering Championships in the Forest of Dean over the weekend 20th/21st February, with over 200 athletes representing 29 Universities in the individual and relay competitions.  

Sasha Chepelin (EUOC) won the Mens’ A race in 58:52 for the 10.5km course with 415m climb, and Charlotte Watson (EUOC) won the Women’s A race in 54:05 for the 7.4km course with a climb of 265m.  EUOC Legends won the Men’s Relay (Stansfield/Barr/Chepelin) and EUOC Legendesses won the Women’s Relay (Reynolds/Zoe Harding/Watson).  This, of course, led to the club winning the overall trophy, with Sheffield 2nd and Oxford 3rd.  Other Scottish universities in the championships were Heriot-Watt (9th), Strathclyde (13th), Glasgow (17th) and Aberdeen (21st).  Full results are on the Bristol Orienteering Club website.

This is not the first time that EUOC has made a clean sweep of trophies at the BUCS Championships, but Head of Performance Orienteering at Edinburgh University, Mark Nixon, said, “It’s been a fantastic weekend with strong performances across the board. Our girls dealt with the pressure of being favourites excellently and dominated the results as expected. Our young guys excelled to get the golds ahead of a very strong Sheffield team. I wouldn’t have predicted us taking home all four golds. It’s an awesome set of results.”

With ScotJOS winning the 2015 Junior Home International, and SEDS winning the 2015 Senior Home International and very strong performances at the World Championships last August from alumni of ScotJOS, EUOC and SEDS, it is clear that at the Junior and Senior performance levels of the sport, orienteering is extremely strong in Scotland.

The individual races to complete the 2015 Scottish Universities Orienteering Championships will take place at SOL1 at Elibank on 6th March.

Support for EUOC athletes through the sportscotland Winning Students scheme is gratefully acknowledged.

Below are the available roles. As Manager/Lead Coach I will plan the overall programme and co-ordinate all the admin; Marjorie Mason will continue to act as Treasurer.

Brief outline of roles

Licensed coach: coaching qualification (BOF L2,3,4 or UKCC L2,3), current relevant First Aid and CPD Log-book, capable of planning and leading coaching activities in line with annual coaching plan.

Qualified coach: coaching qualification (BOF L2,3,4 or UKCC L1,2,3), capable of coaching the exercises planned.

Athlete mentors: may be ScotJOS ‘graduates’ or anyone with personal experience of the development and improvement in performance necessary to compete at national and international level. May have coaching qualification but not necessary; may also act as…

Control hangers: only requirement is to be able to hang controls accurately (especially if volunteering for Sweden camp)!

For anyone interested in becoming a coach or gaining a higher level of qualification, volunteering to support ScotJOS would be an ideal opportunity to gain experience. There is NO expectation that you will have to be available for every ScotJOS activity. These are voluntary roles though reasonable expenses could be reimbursed. PVG scheme registration is required though not a pre-requisite.

Check the ScotJOS 2016 programme. If you’d like to be involved with the summer camp (9th-19th July, Sweden) please get in touch as soon as possible via email scotjos@scottish-orienteering.org to express an interest, enquire or volunteer!

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Elizabeth

This edition was fully updated in 2006, and further improved in 2012 and re-printed in 2015.  It is full of excellent colour diagram and maps – a must for orienteers of all standards from beginner to elite. Many of us refer to it time after time, year after year…

Copies are available from:
The National Orienteering Centre, Glenmore Lodge, Aviemore, Inverness-shire PH22 1QZ £6.00 plus £1.25 post & packing, cheques payable to ‘Scottish Orienteering Association’.

It is also available from various volunteer “sales reps” at local events and from Compass Point.

At Glenmore we are trialling a couple of courses using iOrienteering, which works on both iPhone and Android devices, and can be downloaded free of charge via their website or through the Appstore or Googleplay. Read More…