Category: Announcements

Announcements for OUSA

JWOC ’22 – Part Deux – Return to the Forest

Back in July, Orienteering USA sent a strong team to Portugal to compete in the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC). Most of the 10-person squad arrived early and got in a week of quality training under very hot conditions. Unfortunately, conditions were so extreme that Portugual closed all forest access across the country, forcing the organizers to pivot and essentially create a ‘sprint-JWOC’ for all the athletes who trained so hard. At that time, the decision was made not to hold formal closing ceremonies, but to postpone the forest races until later in the fall after the danger of fires was gone.

The TeamUSA Executive Steering Committee is now excited to announce the team that will return to Portugal this November to finish what they started. Due to school commitments, many of the team members from July can not attend the forest races. Of the original 10 athletes, four will be returning: Lily Addicott (GAOC), Anna Campbell (NEOC), Alex Merka (QOC) and Holden Sopoti (USMAOC). Joining them will be Oriana Riley (DVOA) who was originally selected as an alternate for the original team, and Emilia Schmidt (QOC) who was selected to compete on the 2020 JWOC Team, but due to the cancellation of JWOC ’20 to the pandemic was unable to compete.

Emilia also brings along her personal coach, Kari Jussila,, who has agreed to be the coach for the US Team. Jussila is the general manager of the elite team for Tampereen Pyrintö – a well-known & regarded Finnish multi-sport club – and has about 50 years of experience in orienteering. Coaches Evalin Brautigam and Thomas Laraia, who coached the team in July, will remain as backup coaches and assist the team remotely, but are unable to attend the competition. Also accompanying the team will be parents Tuija Schmidt and Angelica Riley.

Links to the Original JWOC Team Announcement and the JWOC ’22 (Part One) Event Recap.

Call for Nominations: 2022 Silva and Golden Service Award

The 2022 Annual General Meeting of Orienteering USA will be held online Thursday night, September 29. One of the highlights of the AGM is the naming of the recipient of the Silva Award.

The Silva Award is given annually to an orienteer who has demonstrated outstanding service to orienteering in the United States over the past five years. The essential quality of every winner has been service to promoting and sustaining orienteering, to making the sport work in this country, and in helping to build the organizations needed to make orienteering successful.

The AGM will also include the announcement of the OUSA Golden Service awards recognizing those individuals who have provided exceptional service to the sport of orienteering that extends beyond the local club level.

Nominations for both awards are being solicited between now and August 28th.  Full eligibility criteria and lists of past award winners can be found in the attached announcements.  Nominations for both awards should be emailed to Susan DeWitt (skdewitt@nullsnet.net) by August 28th.

Full Silva Award Announcement: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b6RhQ-bJXHxShxo5Ndu_V3Fga7YWJiO1/view?usp=sharing

Full Golden Service Award Announcement: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y5WV-7R_GwT9Mbeyl61G8Y17To-D2SZC/view?usp=sharing

Team USA to Compete in World Trail Orienteering Championships 2022

Orienteering USA is pleased to announce the team competing in World Trail Orienteering Championships in Jelenia Gora, Poland, July 19th-23rd. The team is a mixture of youth and experience. The most experienced members of the team are David Irving (SDO), Sharon Crawford (RMOC), and Clare Durand (LAOC), whereas the newest team member, junior Jarmo Latva-Kokko (Age 16 from NEOC) is participating in his very first WTOC.

David is likely our biggest hope for strong placement in the paralympic category, but Jarmo is looking to turn some heads especially in the timed Temp-O event. He is already ranked 4th in the US in Temp-O and his performance in the Philadelphia training camp this May was impressive. Clare and Sharon bring lots of WTOC experience to the team and are hoping to improve on their personal best. Bob and Karen have less experience in competing in WTOC, but have done well in recent US ranking events. The team is looking to improve from past WTOC performances. Three of the selected team members were unable to go to Poland this year, but hopefully will participate in future.

Selected team:

Open:

  • Clare Durand (LAOC)
  • Sharon Crawford (RMOC)
  • Karen Dennis (SDO)
  • Bob Cooley (BAOC)
  • Jarmo Latva-Kokko (NEOC) Junior

Paralympic:

  • David Irving (SDO)
  • Daniel Heimgartner (CRNA) unable to attend
  • Lee Kuxhaus (CRNA) unable to attend
  • Julius Schram (CRNA) unable to attend

Nikolay Nachev to represent TeamUSA at World MTBO Championships

The 2022 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships are just one of many international orienteering events going on this month and because OUSA’s Mountain Bike team is rather dormant right now, it might be easy to overlook these championships. But fear not mountain bike fans, TeamUSA will be represented in Falun, Sweden from July 15-20.

Orienteering USA is pleased to announce that Nikolay Nachev from the Cascade Orienteering Club in Seattle will represent TeamUSA at this years WMTBOC. Nikolay has been orienteering since childhood and his favorite orienteering disciplines are night-o, urban sprints and MTBO. Growing up he was on the Junior and University National teams in Bulgaria and has competed for TeamUSA in both Foot Orienteering and Ski Orienteering. Nikolay and his partner Ashley Blake were also the overall winners at the North American Rogaining Championships in Lake Tahoe last August. This will be Nikolay’s first MTBO World Championships though he did race interationally at last fall’s World Cup MTBO races in Abrantes, Portugal. 

Bikes have been close to heart for Nikolay since his move from Washington DC to Miami and helped him cope with the lack of orienteering in the Everglades. Since then, he has been part of a competitive road bike racing scene in the Pacific NW racing for Hagens-Berman and Avanti teams of Seattle. He has placed second at STP (the largest cycling event in the Northwest) a 200 mile ride from Seattle to Portland, and has completed multiple Ironman triathlons.


Nikolay keeps his MTBO skills sharp by competing in adventure races and by doing the local Street Scramble score-o series on his bike. We look forward to seeing what Nikolay can do in Sweden in a couple of weeks.

https://youtu.be/4jU9fGUgEpE

JWOC ’22 Portugal Event Recap

July 10-16, 2022

Summary: TeamUSA sent a strong team of 6 women and 4 men to Portugal this year to compete at JWOC ’22. A majority of the team arrived a week early and got in some solid training in the very hot and rocky terrain around Aguilar. Unfortunately, the extreme heat and fire danger would force the country to close all access to forested areas which effectively killed the middle, long and forest relay events for the competitors.

The organizing team pivoted to make the best of the situation and the sprint competition and sprint relays were held with some modifications (extra teams, unofficial teams) so everyone got a chance to run. Additionally a non-championship urban relay (3 person teams, Men’s & Women’s) was put together in a nearby town which included the twist of running through a local nursing home facility.

JWOC ’22 isn’t over yet though – the organizers did not hold a closing ceremony and plan to hold the canceled forest races in early November at the same venues. It will be a huge expense to send our team back to Portugal to round out the competition, but hopefully some of our TeamUSA athletes will be able to make the journey depending upon their school schedules. Stay tuned…

July 4-9, 2022 – Pre-JWOC Activity

Relay Mass Start Training

Sun July 10, 2022 – Opening Ceremony

  • Team Photo & Official Athlete Photos – Junior Team Facebook
  • Sprint Relay medal event added – Junior Team Facebook
    • TeamUSA will field 2 medal eligible teams – 2 Women/2 Men – teams tba
    • 2 TeamUSA women will tentatively run on an unofficial team with South Africa
    • Rumors of a possible non-championship 3-person sprint relay later in the week.

Mon July 11, 2022 – Sprint @ Carapito

1Elisa Mattila (FIN)14:57
2Lilly Graber (SUI)15:10
3Anna Karlova (CZE)15:16
76Bridget Hall19:01
123Lily Addicott21:56
133Zoe Sibthorp24:52
134Alexis Merka25:51
135Kirsten Mayland25:51
141Anna Campbell27:13
Women’s Sprint Results
1Axel Elmblad (SWE)13:45
2Tobias Alstad (NOR)14:11
3Mikkel Holt (NOR)14:13
108Keegan Harkavy18:01
125Victor Frolenko18:53
134Ben Brady19:46
149Holden Sopoti26:33
Men’s Sprint Results
Team USA Men at Accreditation (Jul 9)

Tue July 12, 2022 – Long @ Carapito

Forest Races cancelled due to high heat and fire risk.

Wed July 13, 2022 – Sprint Relay

1



Norway 1
Oda Scheele
Mikkel Holt
Tobias Alstad
Pia Young Vik		57:50
15:53
14:05
13:17
14:35
25



United States 1
Lily Addicott
Keegan Harkavy
Benjamin Brady
Bridget Hall		1:10:29
20:08
15:13
16:20
18:48
n/c



United States 2
Zoe Sibthorp
Victor Frolenko
Holden Sopoti
Kirsten Mayland		1:28:03
22:35
20:26
20:05
24:57
B-Teams
19


USA/RSA United States & South Africa
Alexis Merka
Simon Pienaar
Luke Schipholt
Anna Campbell		1:35:30
28:23
21:00
20:12
25:55
Sprint Relay Results
Team USA Medal Eligible Teams #1 & #2

Thu July 14, 2022 – Middle Qual @ Quinta das Lameiras

Forest Races cancelled due to high heat and fire risk.

Fri July 15, 2022 – Middle Final @ Quinta das Lameiras

Forest Races cancelled due to high heat and fire risk.

Sat July 16, 2022 – Urban Relay @ Dornelas

Forest Relay cancelled due to high heat and fire risk. A substitute (non-championship) urban relay was produced on short notice in the town of Dornelas.

Womens
1

Hungary 1
Boglarka Czako
Viktoria Mag
Rita Maramarosi		57:41
19:47
18:18
19:36
Womens
33

United States 1
Lily Addicott
Bridget Hall
Zoe Sibthorp		1:19:23
26:19
23:35
29:29
Womens
40

United States 2
Anna Campbell
Kirsten Mayland
Alexis Merka		1:36:31
35:31
28:20
32:40
Mens
1

France 1
Mathias Barros Vallet
Basile Basset
Guilhem Verove		49:15
16:59
16:03
16:13
Mens
dsq

United States 1
Keegan Harkavy
Benjamin Brady
Victor Frolenko		mp
mp
21:01
22:14
Mens
dsq

RSA/USA South Africa & United States
Connor Morrison
Simon Pienaar
Holden Sopoti		mp
23:03
mp
28:18
Urban Relay Results (non-championship)

Coming November 2022

No closing ceremony at this time. Decision was made to hold the forest races in early November. Hopefully some of our TeamUSA athletes can make the trip back to Portugal in the fall to close out JWOC 2022.

WOC ’22 Denmark Event Recap

July 26-30, 2022

  • Under Construction: Additional content to be added as it becomes available

Sun July 26, 2022 – Sprint Relay @ Kolding

Leg 1Tori Borish (24th)17:44 (+3:10)
Leg 2Ricardo Schaniel (25th)17:38 (+2:45)
Leg 3Joseph Barrett (27th)18:01 (+4:00)
Leg 4Evalin Brautigam (25th)18:38 (+4:40)
Place & time diff are per leg, not cumulative

Tue July 28, 2022 – Knock Out Sprint @ Fredericia

Women Qual AAlison Campbell (27th)12:21 (+2:40)
Women Qual BTori Borish (25th)12:02 (+1:59)
Women Qual CEvalin Brautigam (23rd)12:17 (+2:08)
Men Qual ASergei Rhzhkov (25th)10:55 (+1:13)
Men Qual BJoe Barrett (29th)11:40 (+1:44)
Men Qual CRicardo Schaniel (26th)11:25 (+1:20)
No TeamUSA Runners advanced to Quarter-Finals

Thu July 30, 2022 – Sprint @ Vejle

  • Maps – coming soon
  • Livestream Full Broadcast at IOF Youtube
  • Photos – coming soon
Women Qual AAlison Campbell (27th)16:00 (+4:04)
Women Qual BTori Borish (24th)15:09 (+3:03)
Women Qual CEvalin Brautigam (18th)14:26 (+1:50)
Men Qual ARicardo Schaniel (27th)13:57 (+2:19)
Men Qual BSergei Rhyhkov (28th)14:37 (+2:09)
Men Qual CJoe Barrett (24th)13:51 (+1:49)
No Team USA Runners qualified for Finals

Virtual AGM – 2022

The 2022 Orienteering USA Annual General Meeting will take place online on Thursday, September 29 from 8:00 to 10:00 pm (EDT) via Google Meet.

Your membership in Orienteering USA helps us to bring programs and services to orienteers and clubs throughout the country. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Clare Durand
President, Orienteering USA

NOTE: Information pertaining to accessing the 2022 AGM will be added to this page as details become available.

Open Board Seats

Four of the current 12 Board seats are up for (re)election in 2022. If you are interested in running for a seat on the board, please contact Jon Torrance (jon.torrance@nullorienteeringusa.org)

Delegates

As outlined in the USOF Bylaws, the number of votes your club’s delegates may cast is based on the number of USOF members in good standing, designating your club as their primary club, as of August 31, 2022.  

You can find a list of your club members in good standing at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1z_bHXWx8v6E6VVsVufo6AaGYsAUMV_wv?usp=sharing

Please notify the USOF Office of the names of your delegates and alternates.  The delegate appointments should be emailed from a club officer to contact@nullorienteeringusa.org or mailed to the address below to be received by the OUSA Office no later than Sept. 27, 2022.  Delegates and alternates representing your club must be OUSA members, designating your club as their primary club, as of August 31, 2022. Delegate forms can be found at: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MxcSwg9XNQKCeAubOhb28pmjPi7tymRP?usp=sharing

Your club may assign its votes by proxy to another club or to an OUSA member-at-large who plans to attend the AGM.  The proxy will only be valid if no OUSA-primary member of your club will be present at the AGM.  Proxy statements must be received by the OUSA Office by Sept. 27, 2022.  Proxies may not be assigned to a particular member of another club.  Give a copy of the proxy form to the club or member-at-large to whom you are giving your proxy and send the original to the address below.  Proxies may be scanned and emailed from a club officer’s email address, but you must use the form enclosed and it must be hand signed. Proxy forms can be found at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MxcSwg9XNQKCeAubOhb28pmjPi7tymRP?usp=sharing

Email scanned proxy forms or delegate and alternate names to: contact@nullorienteeringusa.org

OR Mail proxy forms or delegate and alternate appointments to:

Orienteering USA
509 Seeman Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23452

Agenda

The proposed agenda can be found in the Orienteering USA Library.

TeamUSA Welcomes Newest Members

The Executive Steering Committee is pleased to announce the promotion of four athletes to the US National Team bringing the TeamUSA roster to 36 athletes for 2022.

Sergei will be competing in Denmark next month as part of our 6-person team at the 2022 Sprint World Orienteering Championships (WOC). In July, Anna & Holden will be part of our 10-person roster competing at the 2022 Junior World Championships (JWOC) in Portugal and Tyler joins our 12-person squad heading to Switzerland for the biennial 2022 World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) in mid August.

We’re looking forward to a great summer of international racing with full teams traveling to all the major competitions, including the The World Games right here in the US. Congratulations to all the athletes on the 2022 TeamUSA Roster!!

Sergei Ryzhkov (DVOA)
Elite Squad
Anna Campbell (NEOC)
Junior Squad
Holden Sopoti (USMAOC)
Junior Squad
Tyler Wilson (USMAOC)
Junior Squad

Be sure to visit the National Team page on the website for details on all 2022 team members and the international events they have been selected for this year. Historical info on previous years teams can be found in the OUSA Library. Thanks to all the volunteers on the Executive Steering Committee and the various team selection committees for their efforts in putting together such a great roster of athletes to represent us!

OUSA Welcomes SkyPilots

Orienteering USA is pleased to welcome its newest chartered club, Sky Pilots Endurance Navigators, to its ranks. Sky Pilots is a multi-disciplinary club focusing on orienteering, mountaineering and endurance events – often with unusual event formats. They are located in western Colorado.

The club’s founders Eric Robinson and Ginny LaForme are ultrarunners and former North American rogaining age group champions. They met in Colorado’s San Juan mountains. In a rather strange coincidence, each discovered that the other had for years been hosting an informal run called Las Trampas, unknown to each other and in two different states. In 2004, they married, and in 2018, they moved to Ouray, Colorado and have been busy exploring and mapping the surrounding public lands ever since.

This past weekend the club hosted a ‘Backyard Ultra‘ in which competitors run a 4.167 mile course in beautiful Ouray, CO. Sounds easy enough, right? Well every hour, on the hour, athletes must line up and do it again until only one person remains to start the hourly lap (aka ‘yards’) and complete it. This year’s winner toughed out 35 yards for a total of 145.95 miles. Yowsa!


Perhaps running the same 4.167 loop every hour isn’t your cup of tea? Well coming up on June 4th the Sky Pilots will present the Lost One Standing, a unique mashup of Backyard Ultra with orienteering and rogaining. This 24 hour event, starting at 9am Saturday, will feature 24 different courses on 1:7500 maps with at least 6 each at beginner, intermediate and advanced difficulty levels.

At the beginning of each hour, select, start and complete one of the courses (1-6 controls per course) – you can only do each course once so choose wisely. Mass start at the top of each hour and you must complete the course within 60 minutes to remain in the primary competition. If you can’t get around the course in under an hour (or can’t get back to the start line for the next hour), you will drop down to the secondary competition in which you can continue to participate, but no longer constrained by the one hour limit. Starts in the secondary competition are every half hour, but you can take as long as needed to complete your course, rest between courses etc.

Western Colorado has some amazingly scenic terrain so be sure to check out their webpage for event information and to ogle the gorgeous scenery. You can also join their active public group on Facebook or follow them on Strava.

Eric approaching treeline above Ironton
All photos in this post courtesy of Sky Pilots Endurance Navigation

2022 WUOC Team Announced

The selection committee for the World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) is pleased to announce the 2022 team for this biennial competition. The committee members are Linda Kohn, Peggy Dickison, Will Enger and Jeff Saeger.

The competition will be held in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland from August 16-21, 2022 and is open to athletes between ages 18 & 25 that are currently registered in a degree/diploma granting program of study at a recognized institution of higher learning or having earned said degree within the prior 12 month period.

Congratulations to the following athletes who have been selected to represent TeamUSA at this year’s World University Orienteering Championships!!

  • Men
    • Keegan Harkavy
    • Thomas Laraia
    • AJ Riley
    • Danny Riley
    • Tyler Wilson
    • Peter Zakrevski
    • Edgardo Cruz (1st alternate)
  • Women
    • Diana Aleksieva
    • Jessica Colleran
    • Julia Doubson
    • Bridget Hall
    • Kirsten Mayland
    • Oriana Riley
    • Grace Zoppi (1st alternate)
Keegan Harkavy
Harvard University
Thomas Laraia
University of Edinburgh
AJ Riley
Stanford University
Danny Riley
Cornell University
Tyler Wilson
US Military Academy
Peter Zakrevski
Rutgers University
Diana Aleksieva
University of Virginia
Jessica Colleran
University of Washington
Julia Doubson
Amherst College
Bridget Hall
Mt Holyoke College
Kirsten Mayland
Dartmouth College
Oriana Riley
Stanford University
Edgardo Cruz (1st alt)
US Military Academy
Grace Zoppi (1st alt)
University of Washington