Aims
- Identify the best overall orienteers in the UK
- Provide attractive competitions for elite runners (and would-be elites!)
- Purposeful timing with regards to the international calendar and athlete periodisation (March – May)
- International discipline specific (sprint, middle, long formats)
- Relevant terrain for upcoming international competitions where possible
- Fit in with British Orienteering Talent Pathway and Performance Programme
- Provide athletes with an opportunity to present themselves for selection to squads/teams by performing in high pressure situations
- Provide our elite runners with good opportunities for high-quality competition at the right time of year on good (but varied) maps and terrain.
- Have a dedicated website with results, statistics and fixtures.
History
In the past the Future Champions Cup and UK Cup ran with varying popularity and success for many years. From 2012 they stopped, and in 2013 junior and elite competition was incorporated into the UK Orienteering League.
However whilst catering well for the general orienteering public the UKOL doesn’t meet the needs of elite orienteers. Following consultation between Events & Competitions Committee, elite athletes, and the British Orienteering Performance Programme, in 2015 we kicked off a new elite league with classes for juniors and seniors – the UK ELITE ORIENTEERING LEAGUE was born.
Events
The League selects events which provided high-quality orienteering. The factors below all add up to make quality events.
The races for each year are selected in the previous autumn or earlier. You are welcome to email us to be considered for inclusion.
- Techincal terrain
- Mix of disciplines
- Good planning
- Geographical spread and terrain diversity
- Relevance for upcoming international competitions
- Sufficiently long courses to test M21s
- Seeded startlist
- Accurate winning times
- Live results or quick internet upload
- Course PDFs after the event
- Facebook event
- Event photographer
- Commentary
- GPS tracking
Contact
The league has been coordinated by Joe Sunley since 2023.
The website and scoring is maintained by Duncan Archer. It is entirely possible there are mistakes in the scoring, particular as calculating scores given the eligibility criteria (must be member of British Orienteering) make life complicated – please email if you spot any errors.
Duncan Birtwistle coordinated the league from 2017 – 2023.
Graham Gristwood created the league and coordinated the 2015-16 seasons.