2024 North American Orienteering Champs Recap

The 2024 North American Championships were held as part of the annual Canadian Orienteering Festival. The first weekend of the festival took place in Mansfield, near Toronto, with the Canadian Middle and Long Champs. The festivities then moved to Kingston for a joint COC/NAOC Sprint, followed by the Sprint Relay and debut NAOC Knockout Sprint. Another rest day before moving up to Calabogie, west of Ottawa, for the epic final Middle and Long distance races. There were several US victories (Ali Crocker took home the gold in the Middle and Long, and Joe Barrett in the Long) but it wasn’t enough to keep the Canadians from winning the Björn Kjellström Cup.

Results and Maps

Organizers results page.

2024 WUOC is Underway!

The 2024 FISU World University Orienteering Championships have begun, in Bansko, Bulgaria. Read about Team USA here. You can follow along at https://wuoc2024.eu/. Live GPS tracking for the Sprint Relay has just started at this link.

Yesterday’s Sprint results have been posted.

Sunday will be the Middle distance, and the Relay will be on Monday.

2024 Pan-American Masters Games Recap

Event Information

General Media Links

July 13: Sprint, Kent State University

July 15: Middle, Cuyahoga Valley National Park – Boston Run

July 16: Long, Cuyahoga Valley National Park – Kendall Lake

OUSA Communications

Clinton Morse had notified the OUSA Board of Directors that he intended to step down as National Communications Manager at year end to pursue other retirement goals. With his sudden loss, the OUSA Board will look to fill his shoes sooner than expected. 
Until OUSA can come up with a permanent solution, Barb Bryant has volunteered to coordinate our communications. She is seeking additional short-term volunteers to help with this task; please contact her at barb.bryant@nullorienteeringusa.org if you can volunteer. You may continue to send any messages related to communications to webmaster@nullorienteeringusa.org or newsletter@nullorienteeringusa.org and be confident they will be received by OUSA.

Clinton Morse

Photo by Nadim Ahmed

Orienteering USA is deeply saddened to announce the sudden passing of Clinton Morse, National Communications Manager, on July 12, 2024. He suffered a fatal heart attack after his morning run. Clinton was 62 years old. His untimely loss leaves a big gap in our hearts, and will be felt throughout the orienteering community. We offer our deepest condolences to his wife Ellen, his children Anna, Hayden, and Jackson, as well as to his extended family and friends.  

He was a wonderful human being who also did a great deal of OUSA publicity, including the monthly newsletter, Year In Review, social media posts, and anything else he was asked. Clinton is most famous as the guy with the camera who was running around like a maniac near the O-meet finish line to take your photo.  You couldn’t breathe, but suddenly you wanted to try to look good in the shot. He had a gift for highlighting our best orienteering selves, whether that was in words or in images.

Clint was a graduate of Cornell, and most of his career was in horticulture.  He was the manager of the greenhouse and botanical collections at the University of Connecticut until his retirement in 2020.  Besides his official OUSA role, Clinton was an enthusiastic orienteer, trail runner, and Rogainer, and was a mapper as well as a frequent course setter. Most recently, he single-handedly produced the Team Trials for the US World Orienteering Championship team at UConn, from maps to courses to results.

Photo by Nadim Ahmed

WOC Knock-Out Sprint

Team USA will race in the Knock-Out Sprint, the final race of this year’s World Orienteering Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland. The qualifying round starts quite early; TV coverage for the semi finals and finals starts at 11:00 a.m. Eastern / 8:00 a.m. Pacific. For live tracking and TV coverage, visit this page.

The qualification race will have 3 parallel heats with an interval start. The top runners in each heat qualify for the quarter-finals. The quarter- and semi-finals have multiple sets of 6 runners with a mass start and forking. The final is just one race with 6 runners in a mass start with forking.

Nominations sought for 2024 Silva & Golden Service Awards

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Orienteering USA will be held virtually on Tuesday, September 24th, 2024. One of the highlights of the AGM is the announcement of the annual Silva & Golden Service awards to recognize individuals who have contributed to our sport both at the national and club level. Nominations are now being accepted for both of these prestigious awards and are due by Sunday, September 15th.

Photo of 2023 Silva Award winner Andrea Schneider at NAOC 2023 in California.

Applications open for 52nd CISM World Military Orienteering Team

The 52nd CISM World Military Orienteering Championships (the other WMOC) will take place from October 16-22, 2024 in Cartagena, Spain. This competition is open to active duty personnel from all branches of the military.

Services are now accepting applications for the US Team to compete in the CISM Orienteering Championships. Please complete your applications by July 31st, 2024. 

Reach out to your respective service sports office for more information on how to apply through their systems/processes.  Even though orienteering is not listed on many of the service sport calendars or websites, please apply if you are interested and available.  The services will send your applications to Armed Forces Sports and to the selection committee.

Information on the event:

Links below to the service sports sites and details on applying:

Please also email Maiya Anderson with your expression of interest so that she may reach out to the service sport office if she don’t receive your application through official channels.

MAIYA ANDERSON, Col, USAF, BSC, PhD 
Permanent Professor & Head, Physical Education Department
Director, AF Combatives Program, Center of Excellence
US Air Force Academy, CO
(719)333-9295/2818, DSN 333-9295/2818
Maiya.Anderson@nullafacademy.af.edu

2024 Pacific Northwest Orienteering Festival Event Recap

June 21-30, 2024

General Media Links

Friday, June 21: Middle Distance Warmup, Fishtrap Lake, WA

Saturday, June 22: Middle NRE 1, Fisk State Park, Spokane, WA

Sunday, June 23: Middle NRE 2, Fisk State Park, Spokane, WA

Monday, June 24: Riverside State Park, Spokane, WA

  • Results – via SportIdent
  • Livelox – Maps, courses and route analysis

Tuesday, June 25: Holmberg Park, Spokane, WA

  • Results – via SportIdent
  • Livelox – Maps, courses and route analysis

Thursday, June 27: Classic NRE, Larry Creek Rec Area, Florence MT

Friday, June 28: Middle NRE, Soft Rock Rec Area, Ravalli County MT

Saturday, June 29: Long NRE, Lubrecht Experimental Forest, Greenough MT

Sunday, June 30: Sprint NRE, University of Montana, Missoula MT

TeamUSA Athletes selected for 2024 Young Leaders Academy

Three TeamUSA athletes – Bridget Hall (NEOC), Lily Addicott (GAOC) and Oriana Riley (DVOA) were recently selected to represent the United States at the 2024 IOF Young Leaders Academy to be held one month from now in conjunction with the “Five Days Italy” competition in the Dolomites of Italy. These athletes were chosen in a competitive application process earlier this year. Oriana unfortunately will be unable to attend due to prior commitments that have arisen since the awards were announced.

Bridget is “looking forward to a great week of orienteering and, more importantly, spending a week building connections with youth from across the globe while learning skills that can (hopefully) help build orienteering in the United States. I’m excited that this is the first stop on our adventure this summer, and extremely grateful that I get to do the whole thing with Lily.” Lily adds “The Italian 5 day is going to be such a blast with Bridget by my side, and we will bring home a ton of useful connections and information that we can share.“

The Orienteering USA Board of Directors, at its most recent meeting on May 20th, voted to award a $300 stipend to each athlete to offset the costs of travel to the academy. The Youth Development Program (YDP) is also providing a $1000 stipend to each athlete. This is just one example of the ways that the YDP supports youth and young adults in developing their competitive interests as well as mapping, event direction, course design, sport journalism, or other aspects of orienteering that they love. All youth are welcome. We especially welcome older youth who would like to inspire younger kids.

Congratulations to all three of these inspirational young ladies on their selection to attend this important conference.