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”.

Results from Riversands Urban Event are now under the menu Events/2026 Events. You can see the full results as well as the splits for each of the classes in tabular or graph format. The above graph shows the Women and how close the competition was.

The SAOF Selection Committee is pleased to announce the selection of the following athletes into the High Performance squads for 2026.

Senior Squad: Bradley Lund, Carl Holmes, Sarah Wimberley, Alex Puntigam, Shelby dos Santos, Thomas Ashworth.

Junior Squad: Cameron Morrison, Tristan Babcock, Piper De Klerk, Abigail Hughes, Arwen Terblanche, Vusi Dlamini, Aidan de Koning, Rhys Jones, Lukas Babcock

Youth Squad: Oliver Venter-Clelland, James Kendall, Ernest Tembo, Ryan Busschau, Daniel Manson, Jenna Pirow, Catherine Limpitlaw, Claire Ackerman, Rebecca Botha, Annie Macey

The Selection Committee and SAOF High Performance manager wish the athletes well in their pursuit of their performance goals in 2026.

The first of the urban sprint events is on Sunday 8th February at Riversands Farm Village. And the following week the event is at Pretoria Botanical Gardens.

See Events / 2036 Events for the event sheet and other information.

 

We have three events to start off the year.    1st Feb – Come and Try It at Northcliff, Johannesburg; 1st Feb – Urban Event at Constantia, Cape Town; 8th Feb – Urban Event at Riversands, Midrand.

Come to any of these and club members will gladly show you how to read a map and orienteer!

This year’s calendar is now available at 2026 Events – Orienteering Federation of South Africa.

Be sure to check it for time to time for the event sheets and additional events.

Applications for membership of the SAOF Junior and Senior national orienteering squads are now open.  Please find attached the 2026 Seasonal Policy.

* You will find the application at the back of the document

* The deadline for submission is 31 December 2025

* Please read through the document and familiarise yourself with the contents.

* Please email your application to selection_committee@orienteering.co.za

WOC

The SAOF will not be sending any athletes to WOC 2025 to be held in Kuopio, Finland from 7-15 July.

JWOC

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

Men:  Cameron Morrison.

JWOC 2025 will be held in Altopiano di Piné (Piné Plateau) and Valsugana Valley, in the Trentino region, in the north of Italy. The championships will take place from 26 June to 4 July.  We wish the Junior SA team all the best in the Italy

Young Leaders Academy

The SAOF is pleased to announce that Shelby dos Santos has been selected by the IOF to attend the Young Leaders Academy (YLA), which runs in parallel with the 5 Days Italy event. The academy runs from 5-12 July 2025.

The aim of the YLA is to enable young orienteers to develop their talent and competencies to help develop orienteering. It is a great opportunity to network and make new friends from the global orienteering community.

The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) together with the South African Orienteering Federation (SAOF) is excited to announce the inaugural African Regional Orienteering Conference to be held on 4 January 2026. The invitation is open to all African member countries of the IOF. 

The Conference will be held on the day after the seventh edition of the Big Five Orienteering event, which will run from 29 December 2025 to 3 January 2026.

The aim of the conference is to bring together IOF Members on the African continent to explore the formation of an African Regional body under the IOF. Further the conference aims to make plans towards organising an African Orienteering Championship. SAOF President, Garry Morrison, said, “we look forward to welcoming our fellow African Orienteering member nations to explore ways that we can raise the profile of Orienteering in Africa”.

The SAOF is please to announce that the following three Event Advisers have had their accreditation renewed by the IOF. They have been reaccredited for the period 2025-2028. They are:

• Ian Bratt
• Garry Morrison
• Paul Wimberley

World Ranking Event (WRE) advisers are appointed to orienteering events that have been granted WRE status. They are responsible for ensuring the that the map and competition for the elite classes (W21E/M21E) meet the standards set by the IOF. The SAOF is always on the look out for new WRE advisers. If you are interested you can find the requirements on the IOF website. Contact one of the listed advisers above if you want to know more.