Kent Junior Orienteering Festival 2022

Saturday 9th July

Dartford Orienteers invite you the Kent Junior Orienteering Festival, the flagship event in the annual calendar for juniors only, being held at Darenth Country Park near Dartford.

Medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd on each course for each of males and females.

A maze will be provided for entertainment for all the family after the children's run whilst others are finishing and the medal winners are being determined. Will the parent/guardian be faster than the junior?

Mainly open parkland with a small forested area to the south of the map. Guidance on what to do will be provided both in advance and on the day.

Entries close at midnight on 7th July
Registration online only in advance. Start Times: 11:00 to 12:00;
Contact: andrew.evans444@btinternet.com

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Entered: 33
Location
Courses

White 2.0km
There will be a control at each decision point.
Two sets of medals; boys and girls, for each of years 1 & 2 and years 3 & 4

Entered: 14

Yellow 2.5km
Controls (checkpoints) are easy to find, either on or adjacent to paths. There is a maximum of two places where a decision has to be made to get from one control to the next.
Medals for years 5 & 6

Entered: 13

Orange 3.0km
Controls are on or near paths with some choice of route.
Medals for years 7 & 8

Entered: 2

Light Green 4.0km
Controls will require some navigation to locate them and they may be in the forest but there will always be a path fairly close in Darenth Country Park.
Medals for years 9 upwards

Entered: 4


Entry Fees
Entry Fee: £3.00
Entry Fee Chip hire: £1.00
Event Information

We invite you to enter an event in Darenth Country Park aimed primarily for those new or fairly new to orienteering but with a longer course available for those with some orienteering experience.

Parking
Car Parking will be in the main Country Park car park (w3w: ready.slides.secure), Gore Farm, Gore Road, Dartford. The entrance is off the roundabout at the foot of the hill which is Gore Road heading south from Dartford just before the A2 over bridge.

For Satnav's, use postcode DA2 7HT which is just south of the roundabout towards Green St Green; the postcode for the Country Park (7PU) will not take you to the right part of the park.

Be aware that there are 5 speed humps on the road from the roundabout leading to the car park. As well as being quite difficult to see, the humps are more severe than many so approach the car park with care!

Safety
You must not attend if you or a member of your household has tested positive for COVID-19 or it you have symptoms

You must adhere to the British Orienteering Participant Code of Conduct.

We will be providing marshals to facilitate a safe environment for children to participate. Please email the Organiser using the "Contact" link above if you are willing to be a marshal for part of the time of the event.

New to orienteering?
If you have not been to an orienteering event previously and would like to know more about the event, please email the Organiser. We will send you two short videos so that you know what to expect and how to enjoy the event.

Entries
If you have any difficulty entering using the entry system to the event, please contact the Organiser.

Courses available
There are four courses designed to be appropriate for particular school year groups (see the Courses section above for details) but any junior can opt to run a longer course than the nominated course for their age class and be competitive for a medal on that longer course.

Event centre
The meeting place will be near to the car park. Look for the tall dark blue sail banner beyond the far northerly side of the car park leading to the open uphill area.

Unfortunately there are no toilets at the event. There are toilets at various nearby supermarkets and petrol stations for customers so consider making a stop en route.

There will be a first aid kit at the event for largely self-use and a first aid trained club member in attendance.

Map
The map is 1:4,000 for all courses printed on waterproof paper.

Children on the White and Yellow courses will be able to see the map of their course before they start. They can also discuss it with their parent/guardian but once they start they should be left to discover the area themselves if at all possible.A parent/guardian can "shadow" the child by following some distance behind. If you choose to shadow, please let us know at the download tent if you feel that you needed to give more than very minimal input to the child on the course.

Children on the Orange and Light Green courses will get to see their map after they start.

Start
We will not be adhering strictly to the start time window you have selected. You will be able to start at, earlier or later than that time within the period 11:00 to 12:00 if you choose but having the window enables us to seek to spread competitors out. There will be a gap of a minimum of two minutes between competitors on each course.

Electronic punching
You will carry an electronic finger which will record your presence at the start, each control and the finish.

If you are hiring an electronic finger, these will be in an envelope in alphabetical order of the child's surname close to the small blue tent.

Shadowing
Shadowing is permitted. If the shadower provides any meaningful interaction during the competition, please mention this at download so that we can mark the child as non-competitive for medals. The shadower will not be given a map showing the course.

Control descriptions
Control descriptions are printed on the map.

Loose control descriptions are available online as a pdf accessible from the front event page of the DFOK website but will not be available at the event. These are helpful if you want to avoid keep unfolding your map to check the control code is correct at each control visited but their use is optional.

Results
When you finish, first go to the blue tent to download the data on your electronic finger. If you want to see the time you took to get to each control to compare with others, these can be printed for you.

You will be able to access live results on the DFOK website during and after the event www.dfok.co.uk using a QR code which can be accessed by your mobile phone.

Prize giving
There are plenty of medals to be awarded. Details are on the event website page and on racesignup.

It is hoped that many will want to stay for the prize-giving. There are picnic tables and the weather looks good, so come prepared.

Prize-giving will commence as soon as all medal winners are known, expected to be around 12:45. A set of podia will be used. Photos are permitted and if you do not want your child to be photographed then please let us know at the blue tent.

Maze
In addition to the line courses used to determine the Kent Junior champions, we are offering a Maze located close to the blue tent. There are three different courses and explanation as to what to do on each course will be given before you start. The Maze is for adults and children and will be timed, so parents/guardians can compete separately and compare times with their children. We hope everyone present, young and old, will have at least one go at navigating the Maze!

Event Details