2019 Ontario Championships

Below is information about the Ontario Championships as shared by the Toronto Orienteering Club. More info can also be found on their website.

Greetings to Buffalo Orienting Club

The tail end of summer and the start of autumn are looking pretty special here in Southern Ontario. We are excited to be hosting the Ontario Provincial Orienteering Championships on the first weekend of November this year.

This year marks approximately the 50th edition of the Ontario Orienteering Championships, which is doubly amazing since we are returning to the heart of where the sport started, near Guelph, Ontario, back in the late 1960s thanks to the love of the sport and efforts of Sass Peepre at the local University.

Guelph is a mid sized city about one hour west (or northwest) of Toronto, and lies in the heart of rolling, open, rocky farmland and forest, all shaped by the forces of glaciation (but for more detail, look it up, or check in with experts like Mike Waddington of Don’t Get Lost). This is complex topography, and at the time of our event, will be in optimum running condition, if just a little bit past for the delight of “autumn colours.”

We have condensed three amazing events into one weekend, so that attendees get the most bang for their travel buck, so to speak, with a Sprint and Middle on the Saturday, and the Long event on Sunday. The focus is the Arboretum on the University of Guelph grounds, newly remapped for this event by Meghan Rance and updates by others, plus a glorious return to Arkell, one of the “crown jewel” maps of all of southern Ontario. This area is becoming increasingly hard to use due to local land use pressures and fragmented ownership, but we have managed to secure two great events to happen on the same map. (Please don’t plan on it, but if you don’t do so well in the Middle on Saturday, you can seek redemption in the same terrain in the Long on Sunday.)

Again, the reason for this note is to encourage the members of the Buffalo Orienteering Club to enter the Ontario Championships, and to pass the word around as best you can. See you in November!

Raymond Chung
Organizing team member