The first Lockdown Orienteering weekend has just finished and what a weekend!
500 participants from 20 countries across the globe took part in the multi stage competition designed to provide a bit of orienteering fun whilst the world battles the virus. Competitors had to complete a number of challenges that tested their orienteering skills and knowledge. There were 2 categories: 12 Stages that included 4 races in the computer game Catching Features and an 8 Stage competition which didn’t have any Catching Features stages.
After the 12 Stages the top 6 battled it out in the Grand Final, a mass start race with the winner of that race claiming the overall Easter Championship title.
That Grand Final winner was Casper Skepp of Sweden (are they even in Lockdown there?) with second place going to Theo Fleurent of France and third the Croatian Matija Razum. We livestreamed the race and you can rewatch the action here.
In the 8 stage competition the winner there was our second place on the 12 Stage – Theo Fleurent of Annecy SO in France. In the Junior Under 13s Finlay Mcluckie took the win in both the 12 and 8 Stage competitions!
The Championship was on the traditional JK Orienteering Festival weekend, the largest annual orienteering event in the UK. The idea for the Easter Champs partly grew out of wanting to provide something for the disappointment of the JK being cancelled. So we also included several stages with JK links – like rerunning classic courses from previous JK’s in Catching Features.
So what were the 12 Stages to the competition?
Day 1: Sprint Day
Stage 1: The Routechoice Game
Stage 2: RunningWild
Stage 3: Catching Features: Sprint – JK2014 Swansea University
Day 2: Middle Day
Stage 4: Control Description Game
Stage 5: Photo Memory Orienteering
Stage 6: Orienteering Quiz
Stage 7: Catching Features: Middle – JK2015 Ulpha Park
Day 3: Long Day
Stage 8: Spot the Difference
Stage 9: Streetview Orienteering
Stage 10: Catching Features: Long – JK2016 Kilnsey
Day 4: TrailO and The Grand Final
Stage 11: Trail Orienteering
Stage 12: Catching Features: Short Distance
The Grand Final Live – Rerunning the JK1971 Relay Course!
For further information of the stages please visit the competitor information for each day here. In some of the stages you still have a go yourself to see how you would have got on (or to try again 😉 ).
Finally but most importantly a massive thank you to the people who made it happen – and in all cases at such short notice! Craig Nolan for turning the maps into great Catching Feature races, Graham Gristwood for planning 3 of the stages, Jon Cross for stage planning and results help, Katherine and Hector for their livestream work, Brad Connor for livestream IT wizardary, Simon Errington for his adaptions to his Control Description Game, Tuomo Mäkelä for help on routechoicegame.com and Jan Kocbach for RunningWild modifications and my Dad for the ancient JK relay map!
What next? Lockdown continues so we will continue to provide orienteering related competitions you can do from your sofa! See the main page for further info on what’s planned.
Chris
Lockdown Orienteering 