WTOC 2021 Postponed to 2022
The World Trail Orienteering Championships, originally scheduled for July in Poland, have been postponed to July 19-23, 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Read more at International Orienteering Federation.
Category: Events
Puzzle Friday: Georgia O-Fest Redux
Happy Friday everyone! While I’ve got Georgia on my Mind, we might as well put the media to good puzzle use. Map of Sunday’s Blue course along with some photos taken by GAOC member Lisa Frost. Have a great weekend!
2021 Georgia O-Fest Video Updates
A couple of videos from the Georgia Orienteering Festival (GAOC) held last weekend have been uploaded to the OUSA Facebook and YouTube channels. The first video is a minimally edited assemblage of clips featuring OUSA Junior Team members in action.
The second video highlights the Southeastern Interscholastic Orienteering Championships held in conjunction with the O-Fest.
In addition, Orienteering USA has uploaded much of the raw, unedited video footage to a Google Drive for downloading by schools, clubs and individuals to utilize in creating derivative media for publicity. The majority of clips are sorted/titled by date, school, bib# and name to facilitate identifying useful content. Any media used should credit/tag Orienteering USA. The content in these folders will be deleted at the end of April, so grab any clips you want now.
National Event Updates
New dates have been confirmed for a couple of 2020 events that were postponed due to the pandemic.
The New England Championships, a classic two-day event to be held at Willard Brook SF in Massachusetts will be held October 2-3, 2021.
Run the Rotary, a one-day NRE to be held near Albany, NY will be held on May 14, 2022.
Click the event bar in the full schedule for more details.
Reminder: Regular registration for next months Georgia O-Fest ends tomorrow evening.
2021 Georgia O-Fest is ON
Earlier this morning the Orienteering USA Sanctioning committee unanimously voted to sanction 3 days of NRE competition – the first multi-day national event since the start of the pandemic over a year ago.
The event will take place April 9-11 – that’s only 3 weeks away folks! The usual advance notice, permits, sanctioning etc were held up due to COVID-19 restrictions but the event organizers have been given the green light.
COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed and registration information should be forthcoming shortly.
Friday: Middle Distance at McIntosh Reserve
Sat/Sun: Two-Day Classic at Don Carter State Park.
Photos courtesy Laurie Searle
Puzzle Friday: California Orienteering Festival
Happy Friday everyone! There are only 157 training days left until the California Orienteering Festival which includes the North American Orienteering Championships (NAOC) and the World Rogaining Championships (WRC). This multi-week 10-stage event, which was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic, is scheduled for August 2-15, 2021.
Because the event includes NAOC & WRC a lot depends upon the status of international travel as we slowly emerge from the past 12 months of pandemic related travel restrictions. The organizers will make a major decision on the event status sometime in April. If you registered for the event in 2020 and did not request a refund, then your registration is all set. Around 600 people are currently registered.
If you have not yet registered this is a reminder that regular pricing ends on Monday, March 1st and late fees kick in starting Tuesday. Due to the uncertainty imposed by the pandemic, the organizers have instituted very robust refund policies which can be seen at the bottom of the pricing page.
So kick start your day-dreaming about racing in the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe this August and enjoy this weeks puzzle! See you in Tahoe!
Overlook NRE & Letchworth BillyGoat
IMPORTANT UPDATE: As of September 6th 2021, the fall event is postponed and will now be held on May 7th, 2022. And Sunday’s goat event will be the 42nd running of the venerable BillyGoat. Mark your calendars!
Rochester Orienteering Club (ROC) is taking the optimistic route choice to the end of the Covid Pandemic and is scheduling an orienteering weekend September 18/19, 2021. The following announcement is from Race Director Rick Worner:
“On Saturday we will host a one-day NRE middle distance event on a new map at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area and on Sunday we will offer a GOAT-style event at Letchworth East so that people can enjoy a full weekend of activity in the woods.
The plan at this point is to start the Saturday event at 1PM to give people an opportunity to drive in on the morning of the event. Harriet Hollister is around 40 minutes south of Rochester, NY overlooking Honeoye Lake. It has a moderate trail system, interesting contour detail and very open woods. Mark Dominie is the mapmaker. Stina Bridgeman will be the course setter.
The GOAT event at Letchworth East will start and finish at an area outside the park gates to avoid any crowding in the park . Tom Roycroft is the course setter and plans to offer a long (10K+), medium (6-8K) and short (4-5K) versions of the courses. It will be a mass start at 9AM if Covid permits, otherwise it will be some sort of interval or socially distanced start procedure to comply with the OUSA and NYS Parks guidelines.
The park is open at this time of year and offers camping and cabins. https://newyorkstateparks.reserveamerica.com/camping/letchworthstatepark/r/campgroundDetails.do? Motels south of Rochester are about a 45 minute drive and there are a limited number of motels closer to the park. With the early start on Sunday people should be able to head home by noon. We will likely wait until later in the spring to open registration to see how the vaccination process proceeds and to avoid having to refund fees in case we have to cancel the event. Due to parking and NYS Park regulations we will likely have to limit the number of entries to 150 people. More on this as we get closer to the event.
We really look forward to seeing many of our orienteering friends again. Fingers crossed.”