As we’ve previously indicated we’re going to make a change to the inter club championships in 2022. Currently it is awarded to the club with the most points scored at the Scottish Individual Championships and it seems that most competitors are blissfully unaware of it.
We are keen to introduce a competition that encourages more participation at a range of events across Scotland, provides more motivation for juniors and engenders more club spirit. As ever there are numerous ways that we could do this (and even more opinions) but we have landed on a club league system that we will try in 2022, and review again for 2023 based on lessons learned.
What better way to close the year than get excited about what is in store for 2022?
We want to give you plenty of time to plan your orienteering year! So we are delighted to publish our proposed events calendar before we close the office in 2021. There are still a few dates to firm up and we hope to provide you confirmed schedule for the popular Scottish Junior Cup events early in 2022….watch this space for more details.
Following the article in the most recent edition of Score, a number of members have expressed concerns regarding anti-doping rules and how they may be impacted. To allay these fears and answer any questions, Tim O’Donoghue, our lead Anti-Doping Officer, is hosting a meeting on Zoom on Wed 5th Jan at 7.30. Please register using the Google form.
It’s been another unusual year for the Board. Although some of us have seen and talked with each other one-to-one as events have started up again, we haven’t held a full face-to-face meeting since March 2020. Zoom meetings are all very well and may seem more efficient, but they don’t offer the same opportunities as everyone getting together in the same room for a day of discussion.
Despite the constraints of lockdown and Covid restrictions a lot of coach education happened in 2021. Having spent a much of the last 18 months adapting coaching courses to online and blended delivery, we have decided to keep this format for 2022 for the foreseeable future. The provisional coaching course calendar for 2022 is as follows:
Season’s Greetings! We know there are a number of events planned over the festive season and we are delighted to see that changes to Government guidance still permit outdoor activity and for events (under 500people) to go ahead. However we also wanted to reaffirm some of key guidance messages in place to ensure any orienteering events and activities are taking appropriate precautions to ensure they mitigate risk of the spread especially of the new, high transmissable covid variant of Omicron.
Our guidance issued 16th July still remains in place and the event risk assessments were updated in August should be used to help plan and organise events taking into considerations covid guidance. We felt it important to clarify a few areas of guidance at this time:
Minimise the number of people involved with on the day delivery of the event/activity
Indoor venues would ideally not be used for any part of the event/activity. However, we also recognise it is December in Scotland so if an indoor venue is in use it is vital that Scottish Government guidance is followed and 1m physical distancing is enforced. Further Scottish Government guidance is available at Coronavirus in Scotland – gov.scot No more than 100 people are permitted to be standing in an indoor venue so please take this into consideration.
Please ensure there is adequate hand sanitizer available at key touch points
Avoid display or provision of results at the event
Pre-registration is still a requirement of events in Scotland
We recommend no prize giving takes place to prevent crowds from gathering, even in an outdoors space.
As part of the SOA’s initiative to help kick start orienteering in the spring of 2021, some development funding was set aside specifically to support projects that would help restart club coaching. Maroc successfully applied for funding to help create a more sustainable club coaching programme, through developing resources to simplify and reduce the work involved in setting up a full club training session. The coaching resources have now been made available for other clubs to use and adapt to help develop their own club coaching programme.
The Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad held their final training camp of 2021 in Moray on the weekend of 10th – 12th December. It was great to get together for some fantastic training and festive fun.
In early 2021 the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) completed their 5 yearly anti-doping code review and issued the latest version. UKAD took this and updated and issued the rules that apply to the UK. The changes were not dramatic, but UKAD’s decision to require all sports to comply with their detailed assurance system and to do it in stages through the following 12 months is dramatic: it is also challenging. Anti-doping assurance is about to take on a much higher profile within all UK sports including orienteering. The IOF has also stated that it supports & adopts the WADA code.
