News

The British Middle Distance Championships 2026 were held at Brown Clee Hill, Shropshire, on Saturday 18 April. Thirty WAOC members competed at the event organised by Harlequins OC. The courses were very technical and very fast and the day drew large and competitive fields across the classes. Careful reading of contour detail and fast descending were rewarded. It was easy to get dis-orientated amongst the pits, marshes and vegetation!

Congratulations to Alys Powell for her Silver Medal (2^ND) in W14. Other top ten results in Championship classes were: Hebe Darwin (4^TH, W20); Emma Jarrett (4^TH, W50); Alex Wetherill (5^TH, M21); Hana Powell (6^TH, W12); Erik Biernacki-Jablonski (7^TH, M16); Esther Eaton (8^TH, W12); and Dil Wetherill (9^th, M60).

Full results and photos are available here: https://www.britishmiddlechamps.org.uk/page/results

The JK 2026 was held over 3-6 April 2026 in Perthshire. This was the first JK in Scotland for 14 years, and followed the traditional format of Sprint, Middle and Long (combined for an Overall Result), and Relays. Over 20 WAOC members took part with some notable results in all the competition races.

JK Sprints

On Day 1, twenty-two WAOC members sprinted around the streets of Perth on what was quite a cold afternoon. Courses were relatively simple but made use of artificial barriers and required some dodging and weaving around shoppers and diners. Early starters enjoyed bright skies, but later starters had to deal with rain and wet cobbles.

Many congratulations to Erik Biernacki-Jablonski for his Gold (1^ST) in M16 and to Ursula Oxburgh for her Gold (1^ST) in W90. Other top ten places in the Championship classes were Emma Jarrett (5^th, W50); Hana Powell (6^th, W12); Hebe Darwin (6^th, W20E); Hazel Bickle (9^th, W75); Dil Wetherill (9^th, M60); and Mike Bickle (9^th, M75).

JK OVERALL

The JK Day 2 (Middle) and Day 3 (Long) were held at Rannoch, near Pitlochry. This is a fantastic forest, rarely used for orienteering. Nineteen WAOC members had made the long journey to compete in the JK Overall. The Middle was technically tricky, with areas of contour detail, deep marshes and tough green. Thankfully all runners finished before the incoming Storm Dave on Saturday afternoon!

The storm meant that the Long was in doubt overnight. By the morning, the weather was better, but the overnight snow made conditions more difficult with unmapped marshes, streams and water features, as well as extensive windblown trees. During the day, there was further snow fall making the Long a really tough physical and technical challenge befitting the event. Not all starters finished! It was hard work just making the long, uphill slog to the starts in blizzards of snow! Congratulations to Hebe Darwin for her 8^th in W20E. This was WAOC’s only top ten result in a Championship class, but kudos to the 10 members who managed to achieve an overall JK placing.

JK RELAYS

The final day of the JK 2026 was at Tullochroisk for the Relays. The snowy weather meant that the changeover area had been moved, making the courses slightly longer than advertised. Entering the parking field was very dicey, but the weather thankfully thawed over the morning to allow for enjoyable racing over a contoured, technical area.

WAOC fielded five relay teams, including Junior Alliances with HAVOC (in M/W40-) and HAVOC/NOR (in M48-), and an Ad-Hoc team with SBOC. All teams completed successfully and had great fun. The best results were 8^th in Intermediate Men (M48-); 9^th in Ultraveterans (M/W120+); and 11^th in the Junior Relay (M/W40-).

Full results and photos for the JK can be found at: https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/JK/2026/JK/

The Midland Championships 2026 were held at Brown Clee Hill on Sunday 19 April and hosted by Octavian Droobers. The courses were tough in the (relatively) warm weather and used many excellent parts of the area not used at the British Middle Distance Championships on the previous day. Thirty WAOC members competed. The weekend drew very large fields as both races were important selection opportunities for squad camps and national teams. WAOC had plenty of podium places across the classes in the Midland Championships.

Congratulations to WAOC’S Midland Champions 2026:

W14A Alys Powell

W20E Hebe Darwin

M16A Erik Biernacki-Jablonski

M21E Alex Wetherill

M65L Peter Haynes

Full results for the Midland Championships are at: https://octavian-droobers.org/index.php/results/2026-results/1076-19th-april-2026-brown-clee-midland-championships-ukol-results

The British Orienteering Championships (Long distance) 2026 were hosted by SBOC at Carreg Goch in the Bannau Brycheiniog on 28 February. Twenty two members of WAOC enjoyed the courses planned by former World Champion Megan Mitchell, which were a true test of physical endurance and technical ability on a fantastic map. The weather was variable with early runners treated to sunshine and breathtaking views, and later runners suffering brutal hailstorms. WAOC’s top ten results in the Championship classes were Hebe Darwin 6^th in W20E, Johanna Powell 7^th in W50L and Kathy Haynes 7^th in W65L.

The Welsh Championships 2026 were held at the same event, with WAOC’s Johanna Powell winning Silver in W50L and Alys Powell winning Bronze in W14A.

The following day, 1 March, SWOC hosted the British Relay Championships at Margam Country Park. WAOC fielded six teams, including a Junior Alliance with SOS. The racing would have been fast and furious, had it not been for the horrendous mud! Notable results were 4^th in W14 (Alys, Lulu and Hana), 5^th in Women’s Short (Hebe, Kathy and Kate), 6^th in W50 (Emma, Camilla and Johanna), and 8^th in M18 (Erik, Alistair and Alex).

The results of the 2025 East Anglian League are now available on the EAOA website. Well done to all the WAOC class winners:

Congratulations to all the WAOC runners who ended up top of their age class in the 2025 East Anglian Urban League.

Full results of the EAUL can be found on the EAOA website.

The overall totals of our WAGAL league are now finalised for 2025 following our event at Mildenhall North on 30th November, which was the last of the five WAGAL scoring event of the year.

The WAGAL scoreboard shows the final standings (click on 2025 Results).

The overall winner is Dil Wetherill, with the next two highest scorers being the contenders for the top female score: Emma Jarrett and Sue Hartley. Emma ends up ahead by the narrowest of margins, having earned extra points for organising an event earlier in the year.

Congratulations to all this year's class winners:

WAGAL Class Winners 2025

The Junior Home Internationals (JHIs for short) take place every year to provide a friendly competition between teams of the best young orienteers in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. This year's JHIs were held in Wales on the weekend of 11th-12th October.

This July, one of our junior orienteers, Erik, was selected to take part in the Lagganlia training camp, held annually and based near Aviemore in Scotland.

You can read Erik's report of his experience at Lagganlia on the EAOA Junior Squad web page, here.

The 2025 Midland Championships were held on 6 September on Chinley Churn (DVO). The weather was horrid with thunderstorms for late starters, but nice for everybody else. There are photos of the event, including some WAOC runners here

Congratulations to WAOC's Midland Champions:

• M14A Erik Biernacki-Jablonski
• M18E Chun Yan Alistair Fu
• W10A Hana Powell
• W12A Elysia Cowe
• W14A Alys Powell
• W18E Hebe Darwin
• W45L Emma Jarrett

WAOC were able to field 9 teams (including a Junior Alliance team with SOS) on Saturday 30 August at the Sprint Relay Championships at RAF Honington.

Many congratulations to the Young Junior Relay (12-) (Etty, Hana, Edmund), for achieving second place in the M/W12- class. They were delighted with their Silver Medals.

Everyone enjoyed a fantastic event, relatively close to home, and it was great to see outstanding performances across the classes. We were delighted by those running in their first ever (sprint) relays.

Other notable results were 5th and 11th in the Junior (16-) class; 9th in Elite/Open (WAOC’s second, and best ever, result in this class); and 12th and 22nd in Veterans.

As a heads up, next year’s Sprint Champs Weekend will be at University of Bath and UWE on 27/28 June 2026 (with the Relays on the Sunday).

Park-O returns for 2025-2026 on Saturday afternoons and all are welcome - especially newcomers.

For more experienced orienteers, we will be offering an odds/even score at each event with a small prize awarded to the person who gains the most points over the four Park-O events.

The events are:

• Lammas Land and Coe Fen - 13th September 2025
• Wandlebury Country Park - 10th Jan 2026
• Cherry Hinton Hall Park - 14th March 2026
• Coldhams Common - 16th May 2026

With these and other WAOC events, there is orienteering most months from September through to May so please come along and enjoy being out in the fresh air!

Congratulations to our junior team of 23 who competed in the Yvette Baker Final 2025 and won the Trophy! This is the greatest result by WAOC’s Juniors in the club's 52-year history.

The final took place on Sunday 6th July at Capite Wood, in the territory of SouthDowns Orienteers who hosted the event.

This fantastic result is due to the performance of the whole team, but special thanks are due to our Junior Captain, Hebe, for her work coaching and leading the team. Thanks too to all the parents who have supported the effort to get out the team and in helping on the day.

Full results of the competition including results and more photos from the event can be viewed in the SO website (https://www.southdowns-orienteers.org.uk/events/capite-wood-ybt-final-2025-07-06).

This year's East Anglian Championships were hosted by SOS at Writtle Forest on 22nd June. Congratulations to all the WAOC class winners:

W10 Esther Eaton

W12 Elysia Cowe

W16 Kate Jarrett

W40 Helen Bickle

W45 Emma Jarrett

W65 Sue Hartley

W70 Noreen Ives

M12 Joseph Blanchflower

M14 Erik Biernacki-Jablonski

M16 Chun Ho Andre Fu

M50 Stephen Borrill

Full results from the event can be found on the SOS website here, and a list of all the EA Champions can be viewed on the EAOA website.

Our Annual prizegiving and AGM was held on 22nd March 2025 at the Clay Farm Centre in Trumpington.

Our new Secretary, Jonathan Ward, was voted in at this meeting, officially taking over from Jenny Hunt who is standing down after many years as club secretary.

JabberWAOC, our club magazine, is currently dormant. It is a previous winner of the CompassSport Magazine of the Year. The WAOC committee would like to bring it back to life and would love to hear from anyone interested in helping us achieve this.

This would be an opportunity to look at what works for other clubs (e.g. EPOC's Epistle) or to liaise with East Anglian Clubs to work on a joint magazine.

In any case, we welcome articles from club members - we can publish these on the website as individual items event when they are not collected into a periodical magazine. Please send contributions to editor@waoc.org.uk.

The new Odds/Evens score league was run over the 4 Park-O events in the 2024-2025 academic year (Coe Fen, Wandlebury, Milton and Coldham's Common). With a 30-minute time limit, the courses were pretty frantic.

The best 3 scores of 4 events counted and a minimum of 3 events had to be run to count.

The top men were (which were all those with sufficient scores):

No women ran more than 2 events.

Hebe and Kate represented England at Interland 2025 which was held in the Netherlands on 2nd March as part of team of 48 juniors and seniors drawn from 24 separate clubs. Both scored solid results (Kate was a reserve, so was non-competitive). England won the Interland Cup match with 218 points.

The 2024 East Anglian League came to a close with SMOC’s event at Stowe Park on 19th January, and the final league standings have been published on the EAOA website. Here are WAOC's class winners:

James Scott M10, Esther Eaton W10

Erik Biernacka-Jablonski M12, Elysia Cowe W12

Kate Jarrett W16

Rowan Lee (DRONGO and WAOC) M21

Matt Eaton M35, Brian Cowe M45

Stephen Borrill M50, Dil Wetherill M60

Bruce Marshall M70, Mike Bickle M75

Helen Bickle W40, Emma Jarrett W45

Helen Hague W55, Sue Hartley W65

Noreen Ives W70

Congratulations to all the WAOC class winners!