In August, 2018, the annual Canadian Orienteering Championships (COC) and the biennial North American Orienteering Championships (NAOC) were co-hosted as back-to-back events by the Yukon Orienteering Association. The Yukoners took sole responsibility for the NAOC organization, and also provided logistical support for the COC; the COC officials (event director, course planners, controllers, start chief, etc.) were provided by Calgary (Foothill Wanderers) and Vancouver (GVOC). The Yukon Association has a very experienced core of members with a history of organizing excellent events (including previous COCs), and they delivered yet another highly successful competition this summer.

As citizens of a host nation for an international event like this, you might wonder how the visiting orienteers from other countries felt about their experience on our turf – what did they think of the terrain? The maps? Their courses?

While no formal survey was conducted after COC/NAOC2018 wound down, Nick Barrable, the peripatetic editor of CompassSport (a lively British magazine devoted to in-depth coverage of the UK orienteering scene), was competing in the Yukon, as were >20 other UK competitors. CompassSport subsequently published an interesting account of some of their experiences in the Yukon events, which you can access by clicking here.

OBC is grateful to Nick, and to CompassSport, for allowing us to bring this very relevant article to our membership.