Races

The pandemic restrictions were finally lifted mostly in December 2022, enabling Hongkongers to travel again. JK 2023 was the first overseas orienteering event, apart from the IOF major events which are entered by delegations, with significant Hongkongers’ participation.

JK, which stands for Jan Kjellström, was the Swedish man who brought orienteering into the UK, and now the event is held every year on the Easter weekend which consists of 4 days of FootO (sprint, middle, long and relay, with all individual races having WRE status), and in recent years TrailO has been added to the programme as well. The event this year was held in Lancaster and South Lakes, with 3 TrailO races on the first 3 days of the event, in the order of one-man relay, PreO and PreO sprint, however they are not WRE races unlike the FootO counterpart.

There were 29 Hongkongers participating in the FootO races and 7 Hongkongers participating in the TrailO races.

All results, maps and solutions can be viewed on the British Orienteering website.

Day 1

The one-man relay (combined PreO + TempO scored using the relay rule) was held in University of Cumbria in Lancaster.

4 Hongkongers participate in the TrailO elite class out of 46 in total, with Wang Ki Yuen the best Hongkonger, achieving a strong 6th in race (165 seconds for 15 PreO controls + 10 TempO controls), beating GB team members such as Charles Bromley Gardner. Other Hongkongers results include Ting Ho Gilbert Lee the 22nd (356 seconds), Chi Kin Chau the 23rd (357 seconds) and Michael Tsang the 26th (405 seconds).

Io Pan Wong, Yin Wan Chan and Cheung Hi Chau participated in the standard class.

Day 2

The PreO race was held in Rydal Park, Ambleside. A short timed section was used in lieu of time controls as the tie breaker, with the ranking determined by the points on the main course, then the points on the timed section, and finally the time used in the timed section.

In the elite class, Michael Tsang performed the best among all Hongkongers, achieving the 12th with 24 points out of 28 controls, and 4 out of 4 and 1 minute 56 seconds out of 2 minutes 20 seconds in the timed section. The other Hongkongers’ results were Wang Ki Yuen the 20th (22 points), Chi Kin Chau the 22nd (21 points) and Ting Ho Gilbert Lee the 28th (20 points).

Cheung Hi Chau and Yin Wan Chan participated in the standard class.

Day 3

The PreO sprint was held in Great Tower Scout Camp.

PreO sprint is a non-IOF format which is similar to traditional PreO, however with the course length much shorter, the density of control much higher, and with only A or Z (i.e. if there is a flag placed in the location described by the map) the possible answers. The time used on the course is the tie breaker.

In the elite class, Ting Ho Gilbert Lee performed the best among all Hongkongers, getting the 7th place out of 40 participants with 18 points in 20 controls. The remaining Hongkongers’ results were Michael Tsang the 14th (17 points), Chi Kin Chau the 20th (16 points) and Wang Ki Yuen the 24th (15 points)

Cheung Hi Chau and Yin Wan Chan participated in the standard class.

After the race was completed, the scouts camping there were invited to try out the standard course.

Fin5 this year was held in Tahko, Nilsiä and in Rautavaara Airfield, which included TrailO competitions for the first time. The whole event was 6 days in total, from 14/7 to 19/7, including 5 FootO competitions and 5 TrailO competitions, among them 2 TrailO competitions were world ranking events.

There were 3 Hong Kong athletes entered the TrailO competitions, including Michael Chun Chi Tsang from Scout Orienteering Club (elite class), Kwok Wah Kwong from Hong Kong Orienteering Club (public class), and Louise Mang Wah Li from Hong Kong Orienteering Club (public class).

The TrailO competitions, except the competitions on 16/7 when no FootO took place, were held after the FootO competition at the same or nearly place so it was possible to participate in both. The competitions on 16/7 were world ranking events.

Race 1 was held in Huuhkaja, Lapinlahti on 15/7, which was a PreO with 20 controls and 3 time controls in elite class, and 15 controls and 1 time control in public class. In the elite class, 71 competitors started the race. There were 3 controls voided, leaving 17 valid controls. Geir Myhr Øien from Norway won the race with 16 points and 35 seconds, and Rudi Olvenmyr got the first runner-up with 16 points and 229 seconds. Michael Chun Chi Tsang got 12 points and placed 39th out of 71. In the public class, Kwok Wah Kwong and Louise Mang Wah Li got the 5th and the 9th out of 9 started competitors respectively.

Races 2 and 3 were held in Halssi, Nilsiä on 16/7, which were world ranking events. TempO was done first and PreO afterwards. There were 7 stations with 5 time controls each, i.e. 35 controls in total. 65 competitors participated in the elite class and 4 competitors participated in the public class. Pinja Mäkinen from Finland won the elite race with 253 seconds in total, Lauri Mäkinen and Antti Rusanen, both from Finland, got the first runner-up with 257 seconds in total with a tie. Michael Chun Chi Tsang got 482 seconds and placed 22nd out of 65, with 4.01 world ranking points. In the public class, Kwok Wah Kwong and Louise Mang Wah Li got the 2nd and the 4th out of 4 started competitors respectively.

There were 20 controls and 4 time controls in the elite PreO race, and 20 controls and 1 time control in the public PreO race. 1 control was voided in both classes, leaving 19 valid controls. There were 73 started competitors in the elite race. Lars Jakob Waaler from Poland won the race and John Kewley from Great Britain got the first runner-up, with 18 points by both competitors distinguished by time controls. Michael Chun Chi Tsang got 13 points and ranked the 54th out of 73, with 7.62 world ranking points. In the public class, Kwok Wah Kwong and Louise Mang Wah Li got the 1st and the 6th out of 6 started competitors respectively.

Race 4 was held in Tahko Village on 17/7, which was a TempO with 5 stations, 5 time controls each. 61 competitors started the elite race. Antti Rusanen from Finland won the race with only 97 seconds total in 25 controls, and Ján Furucz from Slovakia got a close first runner-up with 103 seconds. Michael Chun Chi Tsang got 277 seconds and placed the 18th out of 61. In the public class, Kwok Wah Kwong and Louise Mang Wah Li got the 9th and 10th out of 10 started competitors respectively.

Race 5 was held in Tahkovuori on 18/7, which was a PreO race. There were 22 controls and 3 time controls in the elite race, and 22 controls and 1 time control in the public race. There were 63 competitors in the elite race. Antti Rusanen and Lauri Mäkinen, both from Finland, got full marks in the race, in which Antti Rusanen won it by faster time controls. Michael Chun Chi Tsang got 15 points and ranked the 44th out of 63. In the public class, Kwok Wah Kwong and Louise Mang Wah Li got the 9th and 12th places out of 20 started competitors respectively.

The overall ranking throughout the week was calculated by converting the PreO result into seconds using relay rules (60 seconds per mistake) first, taking the difference with the winner, and summing the best 4 out of 5 races. Antti Rusanen was the overall winner, Lars Jakob Waaler was the first runner-up, Geir Myhr Øien was the second up.