News
British Orienteering has issued its latest revision of guidelines on orienteering and coronavirus, confirming that events can go ahead provided they meet the "rule of six" and other coronavirus distancing regulations.
We are resuming our schedule of events in accordance with these guidelines, starting with a Park-O at Coldhams Common on 3rd April. Our events schedule has been brought up to date, assuming that social distancing restrictions are relaxed as set out by the government on 22nd February.
We have created a family-friendly Christmas event combining orienteering and a quiz for you to run at your leisure at Lammas Land in Cambridge.
This event is a virtual MapRun orienteering course which you can do at a time that suits you – perfect for social distancing and great fun! The course is around 1.4km long with 14 controls to find and doesn’t cross any roads.
You just need to:
- Visit here in advance to read more, download and print the map to take with you.Take a note of the start location on the same information page.
- Download the free app MapRunF to your smart mobile phone, open up the app and enter your details, including the Club ‘WAOC’.
- When you want to head out, make sure your phone has a good amount of charge.
- When you arrive at Lammas Land, open the app, click ‘Events near me’ and select Lammas Land Christmas 2020.
- When you’re ready to run, click ‘Go to start’ and then head towards the start location just behind the cafe/toilet block. When you get to the start location, your phone will buzz and the clock will start running, so off you go!
- As you reach each control, your phone will buzz to tell you you’ve got there. It will also do so at the finish and automatically upload your results.
If you fancy running further, our Coe Fen and Newnham MapRun event is very close by. Or read here about other local virtual and permanent orienteering courses.
We hope you love this different way to enjoy orienteering – Merry Christmas!
The WAGAL Scoreboard for 2020 has been updated with points awarded for performances in our event at Rowney Warren held on 8th March, and the CompassSport Cup Qualifier round, held at Aspley Heath on 15th March.
At the moment, future WAGAL events are subject to cancellation or rescheduling due to measures in place to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.
What's WAGAL? Find out here.
On a windy day on 8th March at Rowney Warren a team of 17 WAOC Juniors, headed up by Junior Captain Alex Wetherill, assembled to run in the qualifying heat of this year's competition against HH, OD, TVOC & NOR.
We were delighted to welcome a number of juniors who were running for WAOC for the first time and every team member helped in achieving a great result for the club and qualification for the National Final on 5th July 2020.
Many congratulations to all the competitors and thanks to all the parents who supported us.
Congratulations to the following, who each came top in their respective classes (full results here):
Kate Jarrett (W10), Alex Wetherill (M16), Tom Beskeen (M35), Emma Jarrett (W40), Stephen Borrill (M45), Dil Wetherill (M55), Sue Hartley (W60), Noreen Ives (W65), and Seonaid Dudley (W80).
All 6 qualifying events for 2019 have now taken place and the results have been used to compute the final version of scores for WAGAL, our club league.
You can see the results on the WAGAL scoreboard.
There are awards to the winners in each category: Male and Female Junior, Senior, Vet, SuperVet, and UltraVet. These will be awarded at our annual prizegiving and AGM next Spring. Congratulations to all winners!
The schedule of WAGAL events for 2020 will be revealed in the forthcoming issue of JabberWAOC.
WAOC turned up in force at Pippingford Park on Sunday 20th October, to compete in the Final of the CompassSport Trophy, with a team of 57 entered to run for the club.
The terrain at Pippingford is a mixture of open and wooded hillsides with streams and ponds in the valleys. Despite the weather being dry and sunny, conditions were damp underfoot - most of us got our feet wet just walking into the assembly field.
At one point in the day we were leading, but in the end we were narrowly beaten by HOC. Nevertheless to attain second place is an outstanding achievement by the club. The team were sustained by an array of home made cakes, but we made all these disappear, so it was fitting that we received a box of chocolates as a prize for our 2nd place.
Results can been found here
Congratulations to Ursula, who was the winner in her category at the 2019 British Sprint Championships, held on the Loughborough University campus on 14th September. Also to Sue Hartley who was 5th in the W60 'A' Final. Full results can be found here.
Very many congratulations to the WAOC Juniors, Alex, Oskar, Hebe and Tiago who travelled down to Ashdown Forest in East Sussex on Saturday 7 September to take part in the national 2019 Peter Palmer Relay Competition for Junior Orienteers.
Janet, our club captain, was there to see the Junior team compete and is very pleased to report that they won the DayBreak Relay competition. The Relay comprised 4 legs, with the first leg starting at 6:30am on Sunday morning. The whole team were delighted, not only to be able to run with Tiago (WAOC's 4th leg runner) down the run in to the finish (as the winning team) but also to bring the Daybreak Trophy back to Cambridge.
Congratulations to Andrew Stemp, who gained a podium place as 3rd overall in the M21S category. Other notable achievements include Dil ("I'm just on my way to a meeting") Wetherill, 4th in M55S, and Noreen Ives, who was placed 4th in W65S.
They were amongst a contingent of WAOC members who travelled up to the area of Crieff in Scotland for Strathearn 2019. Whilst some areas of the British Isles were suffering devastating rainstorms, or, in the case of our home territory, record breaking temperatures, we were lucky to have wonderful sunny weather throughout the 6 days of forest orienteering. There was a drop of rain during the Sprint competition on the so-called rest day, which refreshed the volunteer helpers at that event, including the Bickle family.
Well done to all WAOC juniors that came to the YBT national final at the weekend. It was lovely to see so many of you there at our first YBT final in a while and thanks to you and your parents for driving out to Sandringham.
Your attitude was a credit to you all and everybody made it round their course, scoring points for the club. We came 7th out of 10 which was very good when you consider the size of our squad (compared to the winners SYO who had over 50 runners!).
The social side of the event was also positive, I hope you enjoyed being cheered into the finish!
The results from the 2018-2019 Evening League have now been calculated and the winners were announced (and prizes given out) at Milton Country Park on Wednesday 3rd.
WAOC evening league winners for 2018-2019
As per evening league rules, if you ran multiple course types throughout the year, you will only get a podium position for one of them at most. if you achieved a top-three for multiple course type, the podium will be awarded for the course which you ran most frequently (if it was evenly split, it will be the longer course).
Event results
Congratulations to Duncan Coombs, who achieved a podium place and won a Bronze Medal competing as an M21 Elite at the British Long Distance Championships which took place in Kilnsey in the Yorkshire Dales on May 5th.
The M21E course was 16 km in length, incorporating 655 m of climb.
There is a short article on the British Orienteering website, written by Tim Herod, about his experience helping at a recent Park-O event. You can read the article here:
A number of club members enjoyed taking part in the 2019 Midland Championships at Brown Clee Hill, Shropshire on Sunday 26 May. But it was only the WAOC Juniors who were able to successfully navigate their challenging courses well enough to win the W12 and M16 Midlands Championship Trophies. Congratulations to both of them.
Congratulations to Andrew, who was the highest scoring GB competitor in the TempO at the JK this year, at his first attempt, and was also well placed in the PreO.
We are delighted to reveal that WAOC has been awarded a substantial grant by Sport England, to develop our Park-O series, aimed at introducing youngsters (and their parents) to the sport.
This will build on the success of our pilot Park-O events, some of which have attracted well over 100 participants, most of whom are new to the sport.
The grant will support a programme of monthly Park-O events in Cambridge from now until the end of the school summer term in 2020. We are already seeing really good turnout from local schools and the grant will allow us to set up a schools league, where runners can earn points for their school at each event they take part in.
The next Park-O is at Wimpole Hall Estate on 15th June, after which we will take a summer break with the new series beginning in September.
This will be our inaugural MapRun event. Please bring a GPS-enabled smartphone (Android or Apple) with you.
For full details, please see the Bar HIll event page.
Congratulations to Noreen Ives, our club treasurer, who was class winner in W65S in the Middle Distance Race (Day 2) at this year's JK, and to Ursula who was 2nd on W85. On Day 3 (Long distance), James Haynes came 2nd in the M21S class, Duncan Coombs was 4th in the M21 Elite race and Chloe Haines was placed 5th in the W21 Elites.
The Wagal Scoreboard for 2019 has been updated with points awarded for performance in CompassSport Trophy Qualifier held at Sherwood Pines on 17th March (well done once again to all who ran at Sherwood and helped us to reach the final).
The next WAGAL event after the CST qualifier is Bury St Edmunds on 6th October. There have been three WAGAL events so far this year. Youb Best 4 scores count out of a total of 6 events this year.
What's WAGAL? Find out here.