Category: News

The SOA Team was delighted to welcome Holly Stodgell as she started in the post of SOA Development Officer this week. Holly has joined the SOA team as a replacement for Louise Adams who left the post of Development Officer in July.

SATPE stands for the Scottish Association of Teachers of Physical Education. Last weekend SOA attended their annual conference at Crieff High School to promote the sport to teachers as a sport they could introduce pupils to. The conference attracts PE teachers working at both primary and secondary level from across Scotland. As part of the conference SOA delivered a workshop and had a stall at the marketplace. 

The workshop aimed to introduce teachers to orienteering, giving them the confidence and resources to deliver in schools. The workshop introduced: what is a map, setting maps and using orienteering maps. At the marketplace teachers wanted to know about mapping, working with younger children, structuring lessons and more. 

At being at this conference we hope to get more orienteering into schools and more people participating in orienteering in Scotland! 

The Junior Interareas are right around the corner taking place over the weekend of 31 October – 1st November. Hosted by the East Area, there will be a relay event on Saturday at Vogrie and the Individual event on Sunday running in conjunction with the ELO SoSol. The interareas is a highlight of the junior calendar and we highly encourage juniors of all experience levels to go!

As an organisation we take our safeguarding obligations seriously. We believe that everyone should stay safe and have fun while orienteering! Safeguarding is not just about children but applies to everyone within the SOA.

Over the weekend a full team of 24 juniors and 4 coaches travelled to East Anglia for the Junior Inter Regional Championships (JIRCs). This annual event sees teams of juniors from all twelve British Orienteering Regions compete in individual races and relays whilst having the opportunity to socialise and build friendships with other junior orienteers from all over the United Kingdom.

In very uncharacteristic weather for the Scots with clear blue skies and temperatures in the 20s, the Scottish team were victorious in the individuals, relays and overall – returning with lots of silverware. Read on to find out more about their weekend.

It was announced by Jonathan Molloy at the SOA 2026 Annual General Meeting that the Service to Orienteering Award was being awarded to Janice Nisbet of Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Association (ESOC). The Service to Orienteering Award was previously known as the President’s Award but following the re-organisation of the SOA Board and there being no current President, it has been renamed as the Service to Orienteering Award.

The 2026 Veteran Home Internationals took place down in the Peak District last weekend (19th/20th September) and saw Scotland finishing in third position despite being a very close run thing overnight after the individuals. The date of the VHIs was brought forward to the end of September this year from its normal late October position. This meant that it clashed with Coast and Islands, children starting university and the London City Race among other things.

Our September Community Conversation had a theme of using Permanent Orienteering Courses (‘POCs’) to encourage and widen participation, and saw good cross-club discussion with members on experience and ideas.   POCs have loads of potential as means of offering easy taster courses, quick-to-set-up training courses for club sessions), and self-serve ways for individuals to practice skills and progress.  What can help clubs make best use of them to support orienteering development work?

Thank you to all of those who took time out of their Monday evening to attend the SOA Annual General Meeting. A small group but essential for our governance joined the Board to hear our chair Jonathan Molloy summarise the SOA actions in the last year and have the opportunity to raise queries about the reports contained in the AGM Booklet.

Keith Dawson, the SOA former Chair of the Board/ avid Mountain Bike orienteer and Event Coordinator reflects on the 2026 World Masters Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships held in Moray:-

So WMMTBOC26 in Scotland is a wrap! A vision of three years ago became a wonderful reality this week in the beautiful and varied forests of the Moray coast. It was also the finale of the World Masters Series. Over 300 competitors from 29 nations enjoyed the September sun in Moray. Thank you so very much for all your kind and immensely enthusiastic comments about the races and your wonderful smiles.