JK 2025 took place last weekend in the Sheffield/Leeds area. The JK is an annual festival of orienteering, named after Swede Jan Kjelstrom, one of the founders of orienteering in Britain, writes Dan Parker.
It is held over Easter and provides a complete test of orienteering skills over four days, starting with a sprint on Good Friday, a middle distance race on Saturday, a long distance race on Easter Sunday and then a three-person relay on Easter Monday.
The sprint was held in Sheffield city centre, so as well as the usual obstacles there were cars, trams and unsuspecting shoppers to avoid.
Border Liner Keith Tonkin continued his rich seam of form, taking the M65 gold in a time of 12:30, with silver and bronze just seconds behind. Christine Kiddier took bronze in W70, sneaking in just 16 seconds ahead of fellow Border Liner Pat Davies in fourth.
Other good Border Liners results came from Julie Ferris-Worth, showing a great turn of speed to finish ninth W55, and Jeff Powell Davies, 12th M45.
The Saturday event was held in woods near Tankersley, just north of Sheffield. This is an old mining area now heavily used by walkers and mountain bikers, making for tricky orienteering when trying to go at speed.
Stella Lewsey was top Border Liner, taking silver on W70 in a time of 30:28, having led for much of the way. Judy Johnson and Pat Davies also made the top 10 in W70. Other good results were Dan Parker, eighth in M60, and Keith Tonkin, 10th in M65 (though only a minute behind fifth).
The scene for Sunday was Wharncliffe Woods — a classic and varied orienteering area but rough and tough throughout, which provided a real test of fitness and orienteering technique.
Best Border Liner results were Stella Lewsley taking silver in W70 to seal second in the overall standings and Keith Tonkin taking bronze to pull himself up to sixth overall. Other good results were Jeff Powell Davies, 11th in M45 (seventh overall), Dan Parker ninth in M60 (10th overall) and Christine Kiddier, fifth in W70 (sixth overall).
Border Liners also had success on the short courses with Owain Rice and Nadine Wright both second overall on M35S and W35S respectively.
The final day was the relay, held at Middleton Park in Leeds. This comprises a mixture of woodland and fast open areas with relatively straightforward orienteering, but enough tricky bits to catch out the unwary.
The previous three days had been held in pleasant sunshine, but on Sunday rain threatened to dampen the spirits. Fortunately it mostly held off, but for later runners it was a cold and wet end to the weekend.
Border Liners had three teams in the ultravets M/W 210+ class, where qualification is based on age and sex, and there were high expectations of good results.
The team of Keith Tonkin, Christine Kiddier and Andy Lewsley were in the lead for much of the race but could not quite hold on, finishing third in a total time of 86:45. Just three minutes behind, a second Border Liner team made up of John Ferris-Worth, Judy Johnson and Stephen Eastley finished in a fine fifth place.
