News
Three of our club juniors were winners in their categories in the league for 2021-22, and receive a trophy: Elysia (G Y3-4), Kate (G Y7-8), and Alistair (B Y9-10).
Several other WAOC juniors received runners up medals and certificates of achievement. Well done to all, and good luck in this year's league!
Full results can be found on the SOS website here.
Final results after 8 events can be found here.
All the events are now available for you to run for free at any time. See WAOC.MapRun.uk for all of our MapRun events
Congratulation to our WAOC Junior Relay Team who took part in the Peter Palmer Daybreak Trophy at Sutton Coalfield in the early hours of 11 September 2022.
Having spent the night on the floor of sports hall, Hebe set off at 6am as dawn was breaking. All the team had good runs with WAOC eventually coming 2nd (to SYO).
Good luck to Hebe, Kate and Alistair who have all been selected to run for East Anglia in the the Junior Inter-Regional competition in Northern Ireland on 24 September 2022.
This year's YB Final was held at Irchester Country Park on Sunday 3rd July. The WAOC Junior team were 4th in the Trophy competition (for large clubs). This the best result that WAOC Juniors have achieved in this competition in recent times, and possibly ever. Well done to everyone who took part!
Full results can be found on the LEI website - see here.
Congratulations to our M/W 12- relay team who won a Bronze Medal at the British Orienteering Mixed Sprint Relay Championships for 2022, held on Saturday 11 June at Leeds Beckett University.
The British Sprints Championships followed on the Sunday, with some notable WAOC performances here as well...
... Andre Fu won the M12A category race. Alex Wetherill (running for his university team, EUOC) achieved Bronze in M20, and Ursula was placed 2nd in the W85 category. Well done to all!
The winners of our 2021-2022 MapRun league were announced after our event on the Summer 2022 league at Fen Ditton. There were excellent trophies for the first placed runner on each course and prizes for the second and third places on the Long course. Congratulations to all our winners!
Read on for the final placings...
Alex has been selected to represent Great Britain in the 2022 Junior European Cup, which is being held in Blankenburg, Germany, 1st – 3rd October, 2022 as part of a team of 12. For full details, click here. Congratulations!
Our new club chair, Stephen Borrill, was recently nominated for British Orienteering's Development & Innovation Award for 2022, for creating the MapRun.uk website. This is the first time this award has been, ermm, awarded, and so there was strong competition, not least from Peter Effeney, based in Australia, who invented the MapRun app. Although Stephen did not receive the award this time, we are proud to see his work recognised.
You can see a profile of Stephen and the other nominees, on the British Orienteering website here.
At the Sprints, congratulations to Alys on 1st and Elysia on 3rd in W10, and Ursula Oxburgh on 3rd on W85.
In the overall competition (days 2 & 3), congratulations to Elysia on 3rd in W10A, Oliver Hague on 1st in M21V, Dil Wetherill on 1st in M55S, and Noreen Ives in W65S.
This year's British Orienteering Championships weekend took place on 26th/27th March near Liphook in Surrey. Congratulations to Alys for another podium place, finishing 2nd in W10A in the individual long distance races. Also finishing near the top of the results in their respective classes were Noreen Ives, 4th in W65S, and Graham Louth, 5th in M60S. In W45L Emma Jarrett was 15th and in M55L Dil Wetherill was 12th.
Photographer: (C) Rob Lines
WAOC had 6 teams running in the Relay Championships on the Sunday morning. Although there were no podium places for WAOC this time, everybody seemed to enjoy the atmosphere of the event. The M/W12 were 5th (and therefore the best in Britain outside of Sheffield (SYO), whose teams took 1,2,3, and 4!). Photos below of orienteers in action in the relay competition feature Addy, Alistair, and Kate.
Photographer: (c) Rob Lines
Photographer: (C) Rob Lines
Photographer: (C) Rob Lines
Stephen Borrill was unanimously voted in, unopposed, as the new chairman of the club at our Annual General Meeting held on line on 17th March. Stephen will be taking over from Helen Hague.
It should be admitted that Stephen was not able to attend the meeting personally, so I hope this news item does not come as a surprise to him.
Helen was thanked for all her efforts during her time as Chair, and congratulations offered to Stephen on his new role.
During her time as Chair, Helen has overseen the introduction of the Park-O programme and a revival in the numbers of juniors and families with juniors in our membership, whilst also acting as Events Convener and an organiser of many of our events, and much else besides. She has also qualified as a Level 2 coach and will continue to be involved with junior training as well as carrying on as our events convenor.
Many congratulations to Alys who won a silver medal in W10 and Jenny Carlsson who won a Bronze medal in W35.
The 2022 British Middle Championships were held at Rushmere Country Park, Bedfordshire on Sunday 6th March, organised by EAOA with the assistance of over 80 individuals from the region's orienteering clubs. WAOC members did a great job managing the start and 41 took part in the Event itself.
Full results of the event can be found on the SUFFOC website.
You can see the updated scores after 2 events on the WAGAL scoreboard, where you can also browse results from previous years.
The next WAGAL event will be at Great Dunmow Urban on 9th October. Remaining WAGAL events in the 2022 calendar are (provisionally) the CompassSport Trophy final on 16th October, and the EA Champs at Santon Downham in November. Best 3 scores during the year will count.
8 orienteering clubs took part in the qualifying heat for this year’s Compass Sport Trophy competition. WAOC won and so are now through to the final which is on 16 October 2022 in Scotland!
It will be a bit of a trek to get there but we are hoping that as many club members as possible will make the journey!
Full results from the event are available here.
Congratulations to all the WAOC winners of the 2021 EA League, listed below. See the full results on the EAOA website - here.
W12 Kate Jarrett
W45 Emma Jarrett
W50 Helen Hague
W60 Janet Cronk
W65 Sue Hartley
W70 Hazel Bickle
M10 Erik Biernacki-Jablonski
M12 Chun Ho Andre Fu
M14 Chun Yan Alistair Fu
M35 Alex Markham
M40 Maciej Jablonski
M50 Stephen Borrill
M55 Dil Wetherill
M70 Michael Bickle
M75 John Harris
Class winners will receive a memento. These will be presented at the Mildenhall North event on 13th February.
Congratulations to all the WAOC winners of the 2021 EA Urban League. WAOC members won 8 out of 14 classes, with 3 of the winners being Juniors. See the full results here.
Junior Women - Jemima Borrill
Veteran Women - Camilla Darwin
Super Veteran Women- Janet Cronk
Ultra Veteren Women - Sue Hartley
Young Junior Men - Chun Ho Andre Fu
Junior Men - Chun Yan Alistair Fu
Veteran Men- Stephen Borrill
Super Veteran Men- Dil Wetherill
Anne Braggins, former chair of WAOC and "Mother of TrailO", passed away on 27th November. Our best wishes go to her friends and surviving family.
British Orienteering have published a detailed obituary summarising Anne's lifetime contribution to the sport of orienteering, most notably her success in making TrailO an established discipline in the UK and internationally.
Anne was a peerless organiser, overseeing the 1986 JK held in Thetford Warren, and until relatively recently continuing to organise Pre-O and TempO activities at the annual JK competitions, and roping in WAOC members to assist.
Anne was possibly unique in having her own (large) garden mapped as an orienteering area, which she used to lay on informal events as part of summer get-togethers when she was chair of the club.
The WAGAL scoreboard has been updated following the final event in the 2021 WAGAL, our event at Mildenhall South on 21st November. It's good to see some new names appearing in the list of scorers - we wish you all well for next year's league!
Overall scores have been finalised, with those who planned or controlled events receiving points in lieiu, equal to their highest score at other WAGAL events in the year.
The Overall highest scorer was Mike Bickle. Congratulations to Mike and to all of this year's class winners, who are:
- Sophie Kerswell, and Chun Yu Alistair Fu - Junior Classes
- Jenny Hunt, Tom Beskeen - Senior Classes
- Camilla Darwin, Stephen Borrill - Veteran Classes
- Janet Cronk, and Mike Bickle - Super Vet Classes
There will of course be another WAGAL next year. WAGAL points will be awarded from the following events in 2022:
- Mildenhall North - 13 February (CSC Qualifier)
- Salcey Forest - 5 March (British Middles Weekend)
- Great Dunmow Urban - 24 April
- Peterborough/Ely Urban - 16 October
- Santon Downham - 27 November (EA Champs)
For details of the EA championships, see the article here. The full list of winners is on the EAOA website.
In addition to the EA Champs trophies, two additional awards were presented: Sarah Mansel of SUFFOC, who happened also to be the planner of the Bury St Edmunds event, received the Bill Stevens trophy for contribution to orienteering in the region, and Kate Jarrett won the Joan George award for best performance at the EA Championships.
Below are photos of some of the WAOC winners with their trophies.
Do you have any photos of the presentation on Sunday at Bury St Edmunds which you would be happy for us to add to the gallery here, or on the EAOA website? If so please contact eaoa@waoc.org.uk.
Sunday 26th September was an eventful day for some WAOC members - especially our Juniors. WAOC juniors who are members of the East Anglian Junior Squad, namely Hebe Darwin, Sophie Kerswell, and Alex Wetherill, were representing their Region in a combination of individual and team competitions at the Junior Inter-Regional Championships (JIRCS) up in the north-east of England, helping secure a very creditable 6th place overall for EAJS.
This date clashed with the East Anglian Championships 2021, held at HAVOC's event in Epping South West, where orienteers of all age classes were competing with their peers in the region to be the champion in their age class, or outright.
Congratulations to WAOC winners from the EA Champions 2021:
Alistair Fu (M14), Kate Jarrett (W12), and Alys Powell (W10);
Tom Beskeen (M35) who won the Mens Open category, Brian Cowe (M45), Dil Wetherill (M55), Mike Bickle (M70), and Chris Morley (M80);
Emma Jarret (W45), Helen Hague (W50), Sue Hartley (W65), and Hazel Bickle (W70).