New orienteering trails at Kloofendal

Three brand new orienteering courses were unveiled at Kloofendal Nature Reserve on August 15.

Orienteering is an outdoor sport where participants use a topographic map and a compass to navigate between a sequence of control points.

Kloofendal Nature Reserve has, over the years, hosted regular orienteering competitions, but has not had any permanent orienteering trails until now.

According to Friends of Kloofendal co-founder Karin Spottiswoode, the establishment of permanent orienteering trails in the reserve was the brainchild of the Rand Orienteering Club chairperson, Nicholas Mulder, who collaborated with First Discovery Scout Rover Matthew Bower to establish the trails and install the control points.

The orienteering trails are open and free for anyone to try.

“We hope the new orienteering trails will bring more visitors to the reserve and introduce more participants to the sport of orienteering,” Karin concludes.

For more information, contact Karin on 072 595 6991.

Gauteng Championships

Entries for the Gauteng Champs are now open on Orienter. The Sprint will be at St Albans College and the Middle and Long at Die Bosveld. Visit the ‘Events/2026 Events’ page for full details.

Gauteng Urban and Bush Logs

All the logs are now available on the Events 2026 page. See who is leading in each category half way through the year,

JWOC and WOC 2026 SELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT

WOC

The SAOF will not be sending any athletes to WOC 2026 to be held in Genova, Italy from 6-11 July.

JWOC

The SAOF is pleased to announce the following selection of athletes to represent South Africa at JWOC in Sweden.

Men:  Cameron Morrison.

JWOC 2026 will be held in Karlskrona, in the region of Blekinge, in the south-east corner of Sweden. The championships will take place from 29 June to 4 July.  We wish the Junior SA team all the best in the Sweden

Entries open for 2 new events

Entries are now open for the Mountain Marathon at Kings Kloof, and Hilton 3-day Oringen.

Enter at orienter.co.za Events sheets on the events page.

Mountain Marathon

An orienteering mountain marathon is a demanding endurance event that combines long-distance mountain running with advanced navigation skills, requiring participants to use a map and compass to locate checkpoints across rugged terrain. In South Africa, events like the Kings Kloof Orienteering Mountain Marathon near Krugersdorp showcase this adventurous mix of trail running, bushwhacking, and strategic route choice.

Hilton O-Ringen

The Hilton O-Ringen is a three-day orienteering festival held at Hilton College in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, from 25–27 April 2026. It combines competitive races (middle distance and urban events) with social activities and parkruns, making it one of the country’s premier multi-day orienteering gatherings.

Teachers’ Coaching Course 2026

On Saturday 24 January 2026 the SAOF supported by the Gauteng Schools’ league hosted a Teachers’ Coaching course for 13 aspirant school coaches. The course was hosted at Jeppe High School for Boys and facilitated by Carl Holmes, ably assisted by Garry Morrison. The teachers and coaches enjoyed the fully interactive sessions and got to plan and deliver their own mini sessions under the watchful eyes of Carl and Garry. The course has been held every two years and this third edition of the course had the biggest attendance to date.

Four new Level 1 Coaches

The SAOF is happy to announce that four new Level 1 coaches have recently qualified. Over a three-weekend period, coach trainer Tania Wimberley expertly took the group through the course. The new coaches are: Claudette Busschau, Barbara de Leeuw-Morrison, Alex Puntigam and Shelby dos Santos. The newly qualified coaches have already been active with Shelby coaching at WitsOC, Claudette coaching at Northcliff High School. Claudette, Alex and Barbara have been helping to coach the SAOF’s 2026 National Squads. Tania said that, “it is very rewarding seeing the new coaches actively implementing their new skills”.