Thank you to all the Juniors who have already renewed their membership for 2020. If you haven't already done so, and would like to continue being part of SYO Junior Squad, please renew now, as your current membership will expire tomorrow...  (31st Dec)

In orienteering, competitors are grouped into age classes, based on the year you were born, and your gender. This means that you are competing against other juniors of a similar age and ability. As a junior, you change age class every 2 years - so people talk about being in the 1st or 2nd year of their age class.

Check out the Age Classes section on our Other Useful Stuff page to check what your Age Class is for this year.

There's a load more useful info on that page - even videos covering basic skills! You're welcome :)

The 2019 annual club champs were held on the gloriously Autumnal Blacka Moor on Saturday 7th December. There were 4 different mass start courses with gaffling to split the pack. 53 adults and older juniors set off in waves to complete the super challenging courses.

Nathan took the victory on the long course, while Sam T topped the medium. The short course was won by Freya and Charlotte took the victory on orange. However, once Peter G's fiendish handicapping system had been applied and the results from all courses amalgamated the club champs prizes went to Jamie (first male junior), Anna (1st female junior), Robyn (1st senior woman), Dan (1^st senior man), Alex F (1st vet man) and Hilary (1st vet woman).

Once the more experienced orienteers were out on their courses, it was time for our younger juniors to get out on the yellow course. It was a real battle at the top with Lawrence and Maxwell tying in first place. Fastest female was Abigail H. 

Post-race members adjourned to HSBC for a delicious Christmas Curry. Lunch was followed by the very brief AGM before it was time for the annual awards ceremony, which honoured our members' best achievements:

Best male performance at the CSC: Conrad
Best female performance at the CSC: Pippa
Best Junior Relay Team: JK junior – Sam T, Will G and Alice
Best Senior Relay Team: British Women's Open Team - Cat, Mary & Kim
Best Individual Junior Relay Performance: Oscar & Robbie
Best individual Senior Relay Performance: Tim
Best Male Junior Performances: James & Lawrence
Best Female Junior Performances: Charlotte & Ella

Best Senior Overseas Performance: Nick B
Best Junior Overseas Performance: Euan
Best Senior Male Performances: Pete T
Best Senior Female Performances: Amanda

Best Veteran Male Performances: Peter G
Best Veteran Female Performances: Lucy
Most improved junior: Alex C

Most improved senior: Markus
Wooden Spoon Award: Dave T!

The final part of the day concentrated on thanking the club's volunteers for the hundreds of hours they dedicate to orienteering. All the major officials and coaches received a small prize and the club's mappers (Oli, Henry and Colin S) were presented with a framed copy of their maps. Nick L and Kim were thanked for their coaching commitment to club night and were presented with a small award. The Junior volunteer of the year award went to Dom, while Mark D won 'Senior Volunteer of the year'.

Nick L was awarded the trophy for the 'outstanding contribution to orienteering’ for his long term services in coaching to the club and the sport in general. Finally thanks were given to the planning and organising team of Cat, Jacky, Tim T and Colin L for the fabulous job on this year’s club champs.

Well done to 10 SYO members selected to represent England at the forthcoming Interland match: Sam T (M14), Conrad (M14), Max (M17), Nick B (M40), Andy (M40), Freya (W14), Alex C (W17), Imogen (W17), Jenny J (W40) and Lucy (W50). We wish them the best of luck on 1st March!

This years’ British Night Championships were held on the smooth, fast terrain of the Chilterns at Hambleden near Henley on Thames on Saturday 22 February.  Only a small contingent of 10 SYO members took part but they all put in excellent performances resulting in 8 podium finishes!

Congratulations to our 3 new British Night Champions - Max (M16), Ian (M70) and Jenny P (W50). Well done also to silver medallist Nick B (M35), our 3 bronze medallists Martin (M50), Ryan (M20) and Matthew (M16) and also Lesley, who won W50 short.

The 2020 Interland Cup was held at Burnham Beeches and Egypt Woods on Sunday 1^st March. England were emphatic winners with a 48 point lead over the Belgians! Particular congratulations to Lucy, who won W50, and Nick B, who won M40; Jenny J who took 2^nd on W40 and Alex C (W17) and Freya (W14) who both took 3^rd place in their classes. Well done also to the other 5 SYO members – Sam T, Conrad, Max, Andy and Imogen – who all played a vital role in securing England’s victory. Next year’s Interland match is in Belgium on 28^th February.

Interland is a competition held every year between England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands with around 42 atheletes put forward from each team. England competes against two Belgian teams (Flemish and French speaking), the Netherlands, and the French. The competition is for all ages from W and M14 to W and M60+.

This year, Interland 2020 was held at Burnham Beeches and Egypt Woods on Sunday 1^st March by Hertfordshire Orienteering Club. England took the win with an amazing 182 points in the Interland cup, 50 points above our closest rivals. A link to the full Interland results on the Orienteering England website is here....

England also won the Youth Cup with a stunning 76 points!

A big thank you to SYO for supporting the athletes running and subsidising event costs, and another big thank you goes to all the England team managers for organising it all. Finally, thank you to Hertfordshire Orienteering club for hosting Interland 2020.

Here are the reports from some of the SYO juniors who competed:

Max M:

Interland was held in England this year, which meant we only had to go down on Saturday afternoon. We stayed in a vey nice youth hostel, sharing with the Belgians.

On race day, I had a full English to fuel my efforts although due to a very early start of 9:38, we had to wake up at 6:30. It was pretty cold but fine once you got running. The area was very nice in the top half, offering runnable woodland and gradual hills. The bottom half was swamped in holly bushes, which made getting through quite hard. My run was ok; however choosing to go straight through the holly definitely cost me time. As a team however we did very well winning the junior category and the overall competition.

Freya T:

It was England’s turn to host the Interland competition this year and the area chosen was just North West of London - a woodland called Burnham Beeches. The accommodation was quite a way away from the training and event but we didn’t do the training and instead drove down on Saturday afternoon. The hostel was really nice and the England team were sharing a lodge. I was in a dorm with the W14s and 16s who were all really nice and I already knew quite a few of them so it was a good room.

There was a bit of scramble to get a table at dinner but the food was good apart from the dry burger. After a discussion on how to eat oranges it was time for a quick team talk. We were given information about the next day and then we got our England kit. It was great that this year we had the option of women’s sizes so my O top fitted nicely and the hoodie is really comfy. Afterwards it was time to go back to the dorms and get ready for our early rise the next morning.

The next morning it was a bit of an effort to get out of bed at 6am, eat breakfast and make pack lunches. It took around 50 minutes to get to the area and soon we arrived in a muddy English field.  The start was close, only 500m down a track, and after warming up on the way I was ready to run. At the start we had our terrain photos taken and then one by one we were off into the forest attempting to defend our Interland title. The wood was quite vague with a few features and the terrain was fast. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of undergrowth as the final details recommended gaiters but the area looked fine with very few patches marked and as it turned out; it was lovely runnable forest – nothing compared to the man eating brambles in South Yorkshire!

I was the first finisher out of the entire competition, which was fun and I had loads of the time to relax although I had to wait the longest for confirmation of my position, hoping that I wouldn’t drop any further than my 3rd place. Before the prize giving we had our team photos taken in our England hoodies and jackets with our team flag. After a tense wait the scores were finally given and England came ……1st in both Juniors, Seniors and overall.

And then it was time for the long journey home…..

Interland was an amazing experience and I loved running for England for the first time. It was a great chance to see friends and also meet new people. Being asked to run for England was an amazing opportunity and I loved every second of it, beside the dry burgers! Thank you to John the team manager and all the other helpers and thanks to SYO and YHOA for supporting me and Lucy Wiegand for taking me and a few others there and back.  

Sam T:

This year I was selected to run for England in the annual Interland competition, to be held on the first day of March.

At around 2 o’clock the day before, me, Max M and Conrad R drove down to the accommodation where we would be staying overnight. My dad took us down to Interland along with his camera (link to the photos of the race here....).

It took a total of 3 and a half hours of travel to the youth hostel which we were sharing with the teams from Belgium and some French athletes (I think….). We had a big log cabin for our England squad. I was sharing a dorm with all the M14's which was kind of chaotic (in a good way). We had a bit of time to settle in and unpack before dinner at six o’clock. We had pre-ordered food – everyone chose to have a beef burger and chips – admittedly not the most carb-loaded food to eat before the race day, but nice nonetheless. We then had oranges for dessert. We had time to go back to our cabins to relax before briefing for the following day. At about this point, we realised that it was a good idea never to all leave the room without the key (as demonstrated by another dorm….) After being briefed about next day’s activities and receiving my England badge, we headed back to our rooms to get ready for bed. It would be an early start tomorrow and I wanted to get some kind of sleep. I got to sleep at about 11 o’clock which wasn’t that bad, giving me a good 7 hours of rest for the upcoming day tomorrow.

I woke up to an alarm the next morning at exactly 6:15. Completely dazed, I banged my head on the side of the metal bed, which really hurt. 20 minutes more laying down and I knew I needed to get up quickly to get to breakfast on time. I crawled out of bed, got changed into my hoodie and headed for breakfast. I had cereal and a nice cup of tea, but there was a full English breakfast on offer as well. Feeling more energized than when I just woke up, I headed back to our dorm to clean up and move our bags to the foyer to leave the accommodation. We arrived at the event centre (slightly held up by the Belgian bus taking 5 minutes to get out of the car park entrance) with plenty of time before anyone would run. A beautiful bright sunny day overlooked a muddy field that was our temporary base. There was a big white marquee for all our bags and for shade from the sun. Despite it being so bright, it was actually very cold, so I ran in a thermal with t-shirt over the top. It was a short walk to the start, just 500m down a very muddy path in the woodland. The terrain on my 5.1km course was very runnable woodland with some intricate contour detail and a few holly thickets and streams. My run went averagely well but an 11 minute leg that should’ve taken 5 minutes put me a few places down. When we all were back, we ate the lunch that we had prepared just that morning. Results came in quickly and it was time for the prizegiving. England won by 50 points in the Interland Cup, and also won the Junior Cup by 14 points!! In the end it was a great experience and I was proud to be able to run for my country. A huge thankyou to everyone who supported me along the way including SYO, YHOA, and all of the England team managers and organisers.

The 2nd lockdown competition was held this weekend with 537 competitors taking part from all over the world. SYO had more entries than any other club with 26 entries in total. There were 10 sprint race stages, comprising of 3 Catching Features stages and 7 on-line game stages including a maze, jigsaw puzzle, route choice, street O and course choice. The best 8 results counted, although you could take part in the 7 stage competition without Catching Features

There were some good SYO performances at the Easter Lockdown Champs too with Dom finishing 9th in the 8 stage competition and Martin gaining 26th place in the 12th stage competition. 

The best SYO performance in the Sprint Weekend overall came from Ryan who was 45th, with Aidan close behind in 46th! In a correction to the provisional results, Robbie took the top spot in M/W12 with Anna close behind in 2nd. In the M/W16 competition Sam T was 8th with Euan close behind in 11th. Matthew M took part only in the 7 stage competition but took an excellent 7th place in the M/W16 category.

WOD is back on - to some extent!

The Lockdown Orienteering Team are hosting a FREE virtual event from Wednesday 13th to Saturday 16th May 2020.

Heard all about Lockdown Orienteering but never tried it out? Well this is FREE, so why not give it a go? But you must register via this link before 13:00 Tuesday 12th to guarantee you get a place 

This time, there'll be 5 rounds of virtual orienteering to have a go at:

1. Street View Orienteering: have a go using this link. In the competition you’ll be racing round London!
2. Laby – The Maze: you can have a go now using this link. For the competition we’ll set a special course for you to race round.
3. Virtual Trail Orienteering
4. Spot the difference: you get 2 maps which look the same but we made some small changes. Can you find them? We’ll use maps from all over the world!
5. Catching Features (Optional): a race in the computer game Catching Features! Where in the world will we go?

Loads more info on the Lockdown O website

Hope to see you there!!