Junior News
Summer Training Camps 2019
To try and forget about how grim the weather's become recently, we've put together some brief reports from all the tours over summer - many thanks to everyone for their contributions. Click the links below to jump to the tour to find out more about how our Juniors got on! To find out more about the tours, and how to get selected, check out the tabs on the right hand side of the JROS Website.
Lagganlia |
Deeside |
Badaguish |
Gothenburg |
YHJS Stockholm Tour |
Lagganlia
Imogen P
"Lagganlia was an amazing experience and I learnt so much not to mention all the life long friends I made! The orienteering was technical but the terrain was beautiful and great to run in. We swam in Loch Morlich just beneath the Cairngorms! The food was amazing cooked by the great team of cooks and thank you to all the coaches and junior coaches who made it the best week possible!"
Jamie L
"Lagganlia was a brilliant chance to combine making new friends from all around Britain and a week of orienteering in fantastic Scottish terrain. We trained every day but also had lots of time to just hang out and socialise. We swam in the loch and played football. My favourite area was Rosile because of the intricate contours and beautiful terrain. Overall it was a great week and I have made friends for life."
Alex C
"Lagganlia was such a great opportunity to not only improve my orienteering skills but also to get to know people from all over the UK. The areas we ran on were both lovely and technical Scottish terrain and the site we were staying on (Lagganlia) was amazing. We also did lots of activities outside of trainin like swimming, playing football and lots of other fun things. Thank you to everyone who made it a week to remember, coaches who changed my orienteering for the better and cooks who fed me with brilliant meals and toast all week."
Ryan E - Coaching at Lagganlia
"At the end of July I was a junior coach on the JROS Lagganlia tour for M/W14s from all around the country. This mainly involved shadowing the athletes, hanging and collecting controls and summarising how athletes did exercises to help senior coaches write tour reports. It was a great opportunity to help the athletes to develop a strong base of techniques for orienteering at the highest technical difficulty. Personally, coaching reminded me of the need to maintain strong basic skills like compass. We were also participate in some of the more fun and competetive exercises such as clock relays and there was ample time to unwind in the coaches' lodge in the evening."
Deeside
Alex E
"The Deeside tour was definitely a highlight of my summer - a chance to orienteer on high quality areas with great people, whilst being able to practice different techniques both with and without the pressure of a race situation. One of my favourite areas was Balmedie (we don’t get many sand dunes in Sheffield!) which has lots of intricate contour detail. At the end of each day we could then relax with some post-training swimming in the sunshine."
Max M
"Deeside was a great tour full of nice areas but it also had plenty of time to just relax and have fun with all the other athletes. We went swimming every day (helped by the beautiful weather) and usually had at least one competitive race a day to win a yellow jersey. The food was also really good with a BBQ and homemade pizzas etc."
Badaguish
Euan T
"Badaguish was great. We learnt a lot in the classroom and orienteered in some great terrain. It was also a good opportunity to get to know the year above. Thanks to the chef's, could recommend getting selected just for the food. And also thanks to the coaches for giving up there time as well."
Gothenburg
Ryan E
"In August I was selected for the JROS Gothenburg training camp for a second year. This year we had 4 athletes from Yorkshire: Me, Dom, Laura H and Alasdair P. It was a great camp in quality terrain. In our free time we did lots of swimming and on Saturday we went to the Liseberg theme park! At the end of the week we raced at the Gothenburg 3 days giving a great opportunity to practice racing abroad."
Dom D
"This was my first year on the Gothenburg camp, along with a lot of the athletes, but the relaxed feel of the camp was great, meaning we had to do a lot more of the organisation ourselves - such as planning trainings, putting out controls, and cooking. The terrain is a little different to that of Stockholn where I'd been before in Sweden, so was a great challenge orienteering there! Of course Mark and Alice did a brilliant job keeping a gentle eye on what we were doing, so thank you very much to them for such an enjoyable week!"
Yorkshire Junior Squad Tour
Conrad R
"I really enjoyed the squad tour for all sorts of reasons. It was great to socialise and get to know people better, go through amazing experiences with everyone, and as for the orienteering, it’s like nothing I’ve ever been to in England. The coaching was great and i think my orienteering skills and confidence has improved drastically. Whether it’s beautiful forests or swimming lakes Sweden has it all."
Isabelle H
"Squad Tour was a real eye opener to Swedish terrain (even when I was lost), it was a great week of swimming, training and roller coasters!"
Will G
"The orienteering was really hard but great fun and I learnt loads. The rest day on Friday was also amazing especially Grona Lund and the Skansen Museum."
Ryan E
"This year on the Yorkshire Squad tour we stayed in the OK Hellas hut in the south of Stockholm. We had the amazing area of Paradiset right on our doorstep which was big enough to give us areas to train on all of the days we had for training. There was lots of racing too with a double day on the Wednesday and the Stockholm Middle and Long Champs on the last weekend which was on a stellar area north of Stockholm. We had tremendous fun with plenty of down time including swimming and a rest day in Stockholm where we went to the Swedish heritage park Skansen and the Grona Lund theme park. It truly was a week to remember!"
Matthew M
"I really enjoyed the squad tour, the orienteering was very technically challenging and fun. The lake swimmig was great. I also enjoyed the rest day at Skansen and Grona Lund."
Claudine H
"I got a bit lost and it was as a quite stressful when the terrain was hard but I enjoyed it lots. Spending time with the squad, swimming in the lakes, gronalund and the races that went alright were fun. Swedish forests are very pretty as well. "
Podium Success at the British Sprints & Middles
This weekend saw 2 highly successful days of competition with 30 medals for SYO members!
LEI hosted the British Sprint Champs at Loughborough Uni on Saturday in glorious sunshine. As usual our juniors excelled with wins for Lawrence (M10), James (M12), Ella (W10) and Alex C (W14). Robbie (M12), Anna (W12) and Charlotte (W10) picked up silvers while Imogen (W14) took a bronze. In the men's senior and vet classes Nick B took the win in M35 while Bill E topped the podium in M50. Meanwhile it was silver all round for the women with Laura (W35), Kim (W40) and Amanda (W45) all taking silver.
Sunday saw the action move to Chinley Churn for the British Middle Champs hosted by DVO. Despite the mist, SYO were even more successful here with 17 podium positions! It was a 1, 2, 3 in W10 for Ella, Charlotte and Alice; while the M10 boys managed 1st (Lawrence) and 3rd (Maxwell)! Robbie (M12) and Alex C (W14) both took gold, with Anna (W12) and Imogen (W14) taking well deserved silvers. It was another strong performance from SYO's women with a win for Amanda on W45, silvers for Laura (W35), Lucy (W50) and Judy (W65) and a bronze for Rachel on W35. In the men's classes Nick B took gold in M35 while Andy (M40) and Martin (M50) took bronze.
Check out our new Junior Champions in our Champions section of the Hall of Fame...
Peter Palmers 2019!
After 5 hours of minibus madness, music and MacDonald’s we arrived at the home of Winnie The Pooh for a quick stretch of the legs in the ‘Enchanted Forest’ before heading across to Michael Hall School the venue for this year’s Peter Palmer Relays. The evening consisted of volleyball, basketball, burgers, a quick look at the arena, a football match against Cumbria and Sweden, and then a few hours’ trying to sleep on the gym floor before the 5.00am start of the race.
West Cumberland were the pre-race favourites having won for the last 3 years and despite losing all but one of last year’s team they still had strength throughout including three W18s on the Yellow course! Octavian Droobers also had an experienced team as did local club Southdown Orienteers and this year two Swedish clubs sent strong teams as part of an exchange with their Tio Mila relay. With lots of keen youngsters, SYO opted to spread experience more widely managing to field three teams in the main 6 person overnight race and 2 teams in the DayBreak relay.
The Killer Bees had the slower of the two gaffles on the first leg and lost touch with the pack in the bracken filled forest section coming home 9 minutes down in 10th place but ahead of the Swedish team OK Linne. Dom ran an excellent race to bring the team back into contention in 3rd place but still 10 minutes down on West Cumberland and Southdown who suspiciously had been given the same gaffle throughout! The last leg proved decisive for West Cumberland pulling away to take the win while Southdown just managed to hold on to 2nd place in a sprint finish with OK Linne. The Killer Bees slipped back behind the Swedes but with strong runs from Freya, Anna and Euan managed to hold on to 4th overall and crucially 1st place in the Joan George handicap class for the 4th year in a row!
Matthew coped brilliantly with the challenge of the first leg bringing the Bumble Bees back in 11th place and Sam T, Oscar and Jamie all picked up places to bring the team back in 5th place and 2nd in the Joan George class beating all the other second teams. The Wanna Bees finished a very creditable 10th place out of 18 teams with Conrad and James having particularly good runs. In the DayBreak Relay the Bees Knees and Worker Bees teams battled it out in the middle of the pack until the last leg when Robbie put in the 2nd fastest time to move from 6th to 3rd place and sneak a podium position.
Saxons Orienteering Club delivered a great event including a proper DJ with dry ice, and a magnificent setting bathed in early morning sunshine with medals, trophies and chocolate on board we piled into the minibuses for the long but not quite as loud trip home to Sheffield.
Many thanks to Jacky for managing the teams, Nick for commentating and writing the race report above and Jacky, Dave, Nick and Rob for driving the mini-buses. Next year’s Peter Palmer Junior Relays take place during the weekend 12 - 13 September in the Lake District on WCOC home terrain!
Results on the SAXON's website
SFSS' Schools League 2019
The SYO Saturday Series is designed to introduce newcomers of all ages to the sport of orienteering. There are courses to suit all abilities and anyone can come along - just turn up between 12.20 and 3pm and have a go. The series also incorporates the Sheffield Federation of School Sports schools' league. There are 9 league events over the year followed by a fun event and prize giving. The league is open to Y3 and above and there is even now an adults' league; won this year by SYO's Paul Norman!
The new series kicks off on Saturday 21st September at Endcliffe Park. More details here.The other dates are:
Sat 5th Oct - EIS, Olympic Legacy Park
Sat 23rd Nov - Shirebrook Valley
Sat 11th Nov - Whirlowbrook Hall
Sat 8th Feb - Botanical Gardens
Sat 14th Mar - Norfolk Park
Sat 18th Apr - Parkwood Springs
Sat 16th May - Millhouses Park
Sat 6th June - Graves Park
Sat 11th July - Prize giving
We have hundreds of printed flyers if you would like some to give out at a community group or your child's school or you can download a copy here.
The series culminates with a fun event and prize giving. Prizes are awarded to 1st 3 in each age class and there are also team prizes and school prizes. We even reward attendance with a prize for those who attend all 9 events. We celebrated the end of the 2018/19 league with a score event and prize giving at Millhouses Park at the end of July. Well done to all the prize winners - the overall winners are listed below, full list of results here. Thanks to Richard Baxter for the photos.
Primary School - Nether Green
Secondary School - High Storrs
G4 Team - Dobcroft
B4 Team - Nether Green
G5 Team - Hunters Bar
B5 Team - Nether Green
G6 Team - Dobcroft
B6 Team - Hunters Bar
G7 Team - High Storrs
B7 Team - High Storrs
G8/9 Team - Tapton
B8/9 Team - High Storrs
G10/11 Team - High Storrs
B10/11 Team - Penistone
G4 - Imogen, Ecclesall
B4 - Lawrence, High Storrs
G5 - Ella, Hunters Bar
B5 - Oli, Nether Green
G6 - Anna, Dobcroft
B6 - Robbie, Nether Green
G7 - Freya, High Storrs
B7- James, High Storrs
G8 - Imogen, High School
B8 - Conrad, High Storrs
G9 - Carys, Notre Dame
B9 - Euan, High Storrs
G10 - Naomi, Home Schooled
B10 - Max, Tapton
G11 - Alex, High Storrs
G12 - Isabelle, Notre Dame
YBT 2019 - The Report
Yes, it’s that time of year again. When Juniors from England and Wales compete in this inter-club competition, giving them the opportunity to represent their club at a national level. The Yvette Baker, named after Britain’s first World Champion who won Gold in the Short Distance event in Scotland at WOC 1999, allows Juniors of any age (18-) to take part, entering whichever course (Yellow, Orange, Light Green or Green) they feel confident running. Points are then awarded to runners in the 8 classes (eg. Yellow Men, Green Women), and then the top 9 results make up a club’s overall score.
This year there was an additional Trophy on the wobbly plastic table: the Yvette Baker Shield! This is a competition for smaller clubs with at least 5 Junior entries, this means that no matter the size of the Junior division of your club you still have a chance to compete! This added to excitement and numbers of Juniors we saw at Sandringham this year.
Sandringham Park – home to the Queen (who was incidentally in residence) - is a network of interlocking paths, shady pine forest, pockets of open land and a hill sloping off towards the road that encircles the park. Not to mention the head-high bracken which had Juniors carving out paths like Indiana Jones. Needless to say the park provided a sufficient challenge worthy of a final.
The competition was well attended by the top Junior teams (15 this year) from across England and Wales; who after qualifying in their regional heats back in April/May, came together for 2019 Final on Sunday 7th of July to battle it out (donning war face-paint and in SYO’s case - nail varnish), to see who would crowned best Junior team.
SYO (after getting up way too early for a Sunday) arrived to a blistering hot day with temperatures peaking at 25+°C. However the heat was nothing that a mad rampart around the playground, a cool run under the trees and several ice creams could not dispel away. Despite the heat, each course saw fast finishing times with the 2.3km yellow being won in 13:27, the 2.7km Orange in 23:08, the 3.8km Light Green in 32:47 and the 4.5km Green rapidly completed in 30:29.
After a lot of loitering around the download tent, the results were announced!
The Shield was won by SOS with a total of 499, closely followed by PFO in 2nd with 497 and HOC in 3rd with 488.
The Yvette Baker Trophy out of a maximum of 899 points was announced in reverse order, HH were 3rd with 848 points, SO in 2nd with 877, and SYO were in 1st place with 897, taking the title for the 3rd year running!
Thanks go out to West Anglican Orienteers for holding the final and all the clubs who held the heats it is a huge commitment requiring so much effort; but hopefully worth it for this great competition allowing Juniors to become more confident as ‘national orienteers’!
Next year the YBT Final is being held on July the 5th by BOK (South West). Hope to see you there!
Full results and photos can be found on the WAOC website
More details of our Hatrick can be found in this article from the Junior News
Isabelle Hodgson - SYO