Podium’s for South Wales Orienteering Club Members on a very successful final individual day of the JK Orienteering Festival at Pwll Du near Blaenavon. Alice Bedwell won the overall Women’s 60’s and Rhys Manning was third in Mens 40+, well done!
The outstanding result of the day was the effort from the SWOC team who planned fantastic courses and organised the logistics of today’s event, along with all the volunteers without whom this event could not have taken place.
Thank you Anne, Lawrence, Andy, Kevin, Jane and Pete.
Finally for the use of Pwll Du our thanks go to:The Duke of Beaufort Estate, Walters Mining and their tenants, Blaenavon World Heritage Site Commons Management Group, Blorenge Commoners, Garn-Er-Erw Welfare Hall AssociationFor parking:Walters Mining, Mr Alan Llewellen, Coity Farm, Blaenavon & Pontypool Heritage Railway Centre @pbrailway , @rhymneybrewery , Torfaen Council
A beautiful sunny day in Swansea was enjoyed by the SWOC members who ventured west for the first day of competition at #jk2022 Fast running and no mistakes were needed to get near the top of the results with the best orienteers from the UK and abroad competing this weekend.
Tomorrow we move north to the edge of the Brecon Beacons for a middle distance race on the disused spoil tips of Clydach Terrace.SWOC Results – well done everyone!
W21 elite – Clare Dallimore 13thW open – Saskia Jones , 8thW open- Keira Hinshelwood, 28thW55 – Annemike Silk, 46thM16 – Andrew Raven, 32ndM18 elite – Christopher Raven, 31stM21 elite – Quinn Silk, 80thM open – William Parkinson, 24thM35 – Mark Ponsford, 8thM35 – John Seaward, 16thM50 – Anthony Raven, 80thM60 – James Clemence, 10thM60- Adrian Moir 56th
South Wales Orienteering Club are delighted to announce that our summer Park Series is returning on Wednesday evenings throughout the summer months.
There is no set route, you will need to find your way between a series of checkpoints shown on the map. With three course distances to choose from there is something for everyone. You can walk or run, on your own or as a team/family. No experience required, help is available for beginners.
The short and medium courses are always traffic free within the parks suitable for under 16’s. The long option (~6km) ventures into surrounding streets, how far you run/walk depends on the route you choose – the fastest runner doesn’t always ‘win’!
Over 70 participants joined us at Bryngarw Country Park on a blustery Saturday morning for a “one hour challenge”. Checkpoints were scattered throughout the park with lots on the paths and a few tricky ones in the woods to test your skills.
It was great to see so many happy faces and some very impressive results from many people who were trying Orienteering for the first time!
Marcus Pinker was first overall and visited all checkpoints in just under 25 minutes! Eleven competitors visited all the controls, special mention to juniors Rhys Potts and Tomos O’Connor who were trying Orienteering for the first time.
Another special mention to John Seaward who decided to compete pushing a buggy and was spotted lifting it over fallen trees to reach number 22!
Pictures from today are on the club facebook page.
Thank you to the fantastic club members who gave up their Saturday’s to help out; Christine, Duncan, Kevin, Jane, Clem, Marcus, Anthony, Christopher and Mark.
This was the first time we have used the park for Orienteering and we hope to return soon. Many thanks to The Awen Trust for permission and The Outdoors Partnership who helped us secure the funds to enable free entries for under 25’s.
Our next WOW event is at Caerphilly Mountain on February 20th followed by Llantrisant Forest on March 12th. Entries for both events are now open on Fabian4.
The day was bright and crisp and a lovely day to get out, and if you went looking, you could still find frozen puddles to crunch. Well done to everyone who came and took part in our Orienteering event at Parc Penallta. We had 81 entries plus accompanying adults enjoying the scenery of one of Caerphilly County Boroughs County parks.
Penallta was a Club local league event, but also part of our Winter of Wellbeing Series, encouraging winter activities for Children and Young people.
And we had quite a turnout of Young People, almost all new to the sport and keen to find out how much fun it can be.
We had 27 young people on the Yellow course, the majority under the age of 10 years and 21 young people on the Orange course under the age of 18 years. Special Congratulations to those that got all the controls, that is quite an achievement! For those that didn’t, don’t worry, it’s all about the challenge and we hope you had fun finding the ones you did.
Well done to Florian French who topped the Yellow course and Rosa Watts who lead on the Orange course.
For most this will be the first time they have done a colour coded course and they should take encouragement that they could manage that level of course at other locations. Our next colour coded course event is at Caerphilly Mountain Woods – look out for details.
The Green and the Blue courses involve some greater distance and higher technical difficulty and normally run by those with a bit of experience.
Well done to Hayden Griffiths who lead the Green course by a clear 10 minutes and Marcus Pinker who set the defining time on the Blue.
Thank you to Marcus, Duncan and Christine for their expert guidance and coaching to all our newcomers.
We greatly appreciate the permission of Caerphilly Parks services for permission to use the park.
We hope everyone who attended enjoyed themselves and particularly if this was your first experience, that you are encouraged to join us again where we look forward to welcoming you.
Wow it was chilly at the start but you soon warmed up when you got moving. It was fantastic to see so many newcomers having fun and finding so many control points.
Congratulations to Tom Foord who collected all points in 29minutes, Andrew Raven first junior and first female Christine Farr (fifth overall).
Thank you to Mark, Clem, Duncan and Anthony for helping on the day. Wellbeing Merthyr for permission to use the park and the Outdoor Parnership for securing the Winter of Wellbeing funding.
South Wales Orienteering Club are delighted to have teamed up with the Outdoors Partnership to be able to offer free Orienteering events for under 25’s thanks to Winter of Wellbeing funding.
Hopefully we can get more people out exploring the great outdoors and discovering the fantastic benefits of orienteering.
The events are spread across south Wales between now and March 2022. Details for each event can be found in the events page.
You can expect a welcoming and beginner friendly event, suitable for families/kids of all ages. The beginner option (approx 2km) is always traffic free on surfaced paths. For anyone wanting more of a challenge, there are intermediate and expert courses which are further and venture off the path.
Winter of Wellbeing dates
Wednesday 29th December – Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Vale of Glamorgan
Sunday 9th January – Cyfarthfa Park, Merthyr Tydfil
Saturday 22nd January – Parc Penallta, Ystrad Mynach
Saturday 5th February – Bryngarw Country Park, Bridgend
Sat 12th March – Llantrisant Forest
Sat 2nd April Caerphilly Mountain (rescheduled from Feb)
All events are risk assessed and organised in accordance with British Orienteering guidelines.
You have 60 minutes, and a map with 25 checkpoints to visit. Your goal is to score points by visiting checkpoints. Score as many points as you can, and get back to the start within the time limit.
You can choose which checkpoints to visit, in any order, via any route. Speed is an advantage, but the fastest runner won’t necessarily come out on top. It’ll take smart planning to find the shortest route worth the most points.
Download the MapRun6 app to your phone to use as your timing chip and record your checkpoint visits, load the event using the app. We will provide you with the specially prepared map at the start.
Date
Area
Start location
Notes
Mass start at 7 pm, there will be a briefing from the organiser at 6.55 however if you are new we recommend arriving early to ask any questions.
ENTRIES: Online at Fabian4. You can enter up until 6.55pm on the night (through fabian4) subject to map availability.
FEES – £3 Adults, (+£2 non-British Orienteering members), £1 U16 . U16 must be accompanied by an adult at all times who will also have to enter the event.
BRING – phone, torch, pen and hi viz to wear. Some paths may be muddy and slippery.
You will need a smartphone with the Maprun6 app or Garmin watch with Maprun6 installed, this is best done at home.
You will need to register with simple details. Then open the app and download the event. SWOC winter mapruns are in the folder UK/Wales/South Wales/2021. All you have to do on the night is identify yourself to the organiser, collect your map and start.
SAFETY- You take part at your own risk, you will be running/walking on public streets/paths with traffic. You MUST use crossing points where available to cross roads and stop, look and listen! Please be mindful of personal space/social distancing particularly at the start/finish of your run.
ACCESSIBILITY – We have previously had competitors enjoy these events using wheelchair/mobility scooter. Send us a message in advance and we can provide an annotated map with key obstacles (stairs/narrow gates) highlighted.
Detailed instructions:
You have 60 minutes, and a map with 30 checkpoints to visit. Your goal: to score points by visiting checkpoints. Score as many points as you can, and get back to the start within the time limit. You can choose which checkpoints to visit, in any order, via any route. Checkpoints are mixture of road junctions and path junctions and have between 10 and 30 points awarded. Controls 1 – 10 are worth 10 pts, 11 – 20, 20 pts , 21 – 30 are 30pts . Penalties for being late back are 10pts per minute !!! The event is timed and checkpoint visits recorded using the MapRun6 app. It helps to download the app and the event beforehand but we can provide full instructions before you start.
80 competitors took part in the final round of the Park Series on some fun courses in the park despite having to avoid the dinosaurs who have invaded the park! Congratulations to everyone who ran it has been fantastic to see the improvement of some of the newer members throughout the series.
Thank-you to all of the SWOC members who have volunteered their time to organise/plan/help on the day and also Cardiff Council and Rhondda Cynon Taf Council for permission to use the Parks.
Orienteering continues! Our next events are:
September 11/12th Welsh Championships Weekend near Merthyr (short and junior courses available).
September 15th evening MapRuns resume! An evening 1 hour challenge around the streets, starting off with Cardiff Bay.
October 23rd Saturday, Mynydd Y Gaer nr Bridgend, a great event if you have enjoyed the Park races. Courses for novices/improvers and juniors
Full details of all of the above will be posted up on facebook and the website
