We are delighted to announce the appointment of Louise Adams as the new Lead Development Officer for SOA. From a field of high quality applicants for the post, Louise’s excitement and enthusiasm for the World Orienteering Championships coming to Edinburgh in 2024 made her the obvious choice to work with our existing development officer, Heidi Ross.
A graduate from Edinburgh University, Louise is a qualified orienteering coach who has coached both on Junior Regional Orienteering Squads (JROS) Tours and here in Scotland. She is originally from South Yorkshire, is now a member of Interlopers, and based in Edinburgh.
Heidi and Louise will work together to meet the needs of the clubs, regions and development pathway projects under the SOA remit. Having moved away from having an identified development officer for each region, Heidi and Louise will will in the first instance be working together to ensure that the proposals by Baroudeur to Make the Most out of WOC and the current development projects are taken forward. For any club requiring support please contact Louise louise@scottish-orienteering.org or Heidi heidi@scottish-orienteering.org
This online discussion chaired by Suzanne, our Coaching and Volunteer Officer, aims to allow clubs who feel they have a strong coaching culture to share their experiences and the secrets of their success with others and encourage conversations around the topics of how we foster a good coaching culture. We are looking to listen to everyone’s ideas and needs and share good practice.
If you wish to be a part of this conversation, please register using the form. We are also looking for clubs who feel they have a success story to share, to give a short presentation summarising the key contributory factors in their achievements. Please contact suzanne@scottish-orienteering.org if you are able to help.
Please register by Sunday evening as a zoom link will be sent out on Monday to all those registered.
Preparations for WOC 2024 in Edinburgh took a massive step forward this weekend, as Euromeeting came to Stirling, and a series of races over the world championship distances Euromeeting traditionally is an opportunity for the host federation to test out its preparedness for the main event, and the mappers, planners and key organisers were keen to make their mark on what should be a fantastic experience in Edinburgh next summer.
Proceedings opened on Friday with a Mixed Sprint Relay round the campus of Queen Victoria School, Dunblane. The establishment was once a key venue on the local orienteering scene, but access issues have prevented its use for several years until now, so it was great to get back out again on what’s a fantastic Sprint area. Planner Graeme Ackland eschewed the use of half of his reserved area, and opted instead for a tight set of courses in the grounds of the school itself, with route choices galore and many changes of direction.
Last week’s European Championships in Italy served as the end of the season for many of the top athletes, but there was still a star-studded cast on display, with European champions Sweden in particular flexing their muscles with three of the top 12 athletes in the world in their team, two of whom were omitted last week. The race was close through the first three legs. until Hanne Lundberg produced a run for the ages on the last lap, turning an eight second gap at the change-over into a two minute winning margin (52.43) by the end for the Swedes. There was a dramatic conclusion to the race, as Norway was second over the line, only to initially be disqualified for a last leg mispunch. An appeal was quickly submitted, into the proximity of two controls, and they were reinstated before the trophy presentation, leaving France in 3rd place.
On Saturday it was the turn of the Knockout Sprint, at Stirling University, and there was more close action to follow. An initial qualification round in the morning established the 36 runners who would go out in the knockout phase, and there was significant British interest, as eight of the men and no fewer than nine of the women in the GB team, many of whom have a Scottish connection, made it into the afternoon field. The quarter-final action took athletes from the back of the university library, across the loch and round the accommodation, before returning to the start in frantic seven minute races. Many of the Brits were drawn into the same heat, but five emerged, including “Scots” Freddie Carcas (Interlopers) and Eddie Narbett (AROS), as well as World champion in the individual sprint Megan Carter-Davies (SBOC).
The action grew hotter and hotter, with only two from each semi-final progressing to the main race. Three more Brits fell at this stage, but Eddie and Megan both made it to the final. Eddie was first in action, and was prominent through the early stages of the race, which was led out by Switzerland’s Fabian Aebersold. Sitting 2nd with 150 metres and two controls to go, Eddie was agonisingly run out of the medals by five seconds, as Swedish duo August Mollen and Jonatan Gustafsson came through onto the podium. Aebersold led the race from start to finish, and Stirling University is clearly a happy hunting ground for his family, as he joins younger sister Simona, who won the JEC Sprint here in 2017 in the Stirling champions book.
The last action of the day was the womens final, with British interest in the form of Megan Carter- Davies. Unlike the men’s final, which splintered on the first control, the women stayed together throughout the race, and as Tilda Ostberg (SWE) ran off the front from the midway point, the battle was on for the silver medal. Megan was 3rd coming back into the arena to Henna Lundberg, but injected a deal of late pace to move ahead of the Swedish athlete with 80 metres left, and she came in with the silver medal by 2.1 seconds.
The weekend closed with the Individual Sprint in Stirling Old Town. Tilda Ostberg made it a double for the weekend, as she won the womens race in 14.43, while top seed Yannick Michiels headed the mens class in 14.23, with GB’s Jonny Crickmore 2nd, just seven seconds behind. Flat-track sprinters were left gasping for breath by Ross McLennan’s courses, which intriguingly were of standard length for the class, but featured a meaty level of climb.
As well as the World Ranking races, there was a large undercard of racing for local competitors, with a series of mass-start sprints on Friday, which proved to the the first experience of head-to- head sprinting for many of the competitors, two more individual sprints on Saturday, and the 10th round of the Scottish Urban Orienteering League on the final day.
The event provided a testing ground for the WOC 2024 computing team as well as the planning and controlling teams. Given the excitement of the weekend, we are all looking forward to WOC 2024. Well done to the planners Jon Cross, Graeme Ackland and Ross McLennan, the controller Tony Thornley, Andy Llewelyn, Colin Matheson and the rest of the FVO team for all their efforts.
Following adoption by British Orienteering Federation at their AGM of new two membership categories (Family and Young Adults) and part year membership fees for new Senior Members, the SOA Board proposes that additional categories of membership are added to the SOA membership categories and to create a part year membership fee for new Senior members.
We are therefore notifying all members of an Extraordinary General Meeting being held on Monday 30th October 2023 at 7pm online. The EGM Booklet detailing the proposed membership changes is attached and includes a printable proxy voting form together with a link to an electronic proxy voting form.
The latest volunteer strategy document highlighted the requirement to open up channels of communication between the SOA and volunteers enabling the Board and Staff Team to address volunteers’ needs and revise strategy as necessary. It is recognised that the SOA should provide regular consultation and a forum for volunteers to express these needs.
Monday’s Community Conversation aims to follow up on areas highlighted during last year’s Club Listening exercise and Club Conference and encourage conversations around the topics of how we optimise our recruitment, training and retention of volunteers. We are looking to listen to your ideas and needs, share good practice and keep the ball rolling.
If you would like to be part of this conversation, please register with the email address you will be using on the night by filling in the registration form by 12 pm Monday.
