facts about orienteering and map reading

 International Orienteering

The first European Championships were held at Löten in Norway in 1962, with Magne Lystad, a forestry worker from Norway, as men's champion, and Ulla Lindquist from Sweden the women's champion. In Finland in 1966 this event became the World Championships, with Ulla Lindquist again women's champion, and the men's champion again a Norwegian, Age Hadler.

Orienteering in the UK

Orienteering was introduced into Britain in the 1950s. In 1953 John Disley competed in an orienteering event at the Swedish National Sports Centre at Boson, while touring Sweden as a member of the British athletics team. For all his running ability - he was an Olympic medalist at the 1952 games - he was easily beaten by some twenty women P.E. students, but decided that this was a natural sport for the British who loved running, wild places and maps. In 1955 he arranged 2 events in the Bryn Egan forest in Snowdonia, opposite the National Outdoor Activity Centre at Plas y Brenin. About thirty to thirty five people took part in what were probably the first orienteering events held in Britian, though because they had to make do with inch to the mile maps they were not particularly successful.

Possibly the first public mention of the sport in the United Kingdom was in an article in the Observer newspaper in 1957, written by Chris Brasher who had been gold medalist in the 1956 Olympic Games. Brasher said: