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. It is held over Easter and provides a complete test of orienteering skills over 4 days starting with a Sprint on Good Friday, a Middle Distance race on Saturday, a Long Distance race on Easter Sunday and then a 3-person relay on Easter Monday.
The Sprint was held in Sheffield city centre so as well as the usual obstacles there were also 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 on W70, sneaking in just 16 seconds ahead of fellow Border Liner Pat Davies in 4th. Other good results from Border Liners were Julie Ferris-Worth showing a great turn of speed to come 9th on W55 and Jeff Powell Davies, 12th in 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 round. Judy Johnson and Pat Davies also made the top ten in W70. Other good results were Dan Parker 8th in M60 and Keith Tonkin 10th in M65 (though only a minute behind 5th).
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 on W70 to seal 2nd in the overall standings and Keith Tonkin taking Bronze to pull himself up to 6th overall. Other good results were Jeff Powell Davies, 11th in M45 (7th overall), Dan Parker 9th in M60 (10th overall) and Christine Kiddier 5th in W70 (6th overall). Border Liners also had success on the short courses with Owain Rice and Nadine Wright both 2nd overall on M35S and W35S respectively.
The final day of JK 2025 was the relay, held at Middleton Park in Leeds. This comprises of 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 rain threatened to dampen the spirits. Fortunately it mostly held off but then for later runners provided a cold and wet end to the weekend. Border Liners had 3 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 couldn’t quite hold on, finishing 3rd in a total time of 86:45. Just 3 minutes behind, a second Border Liner team made of of John Ferris-Worth, Judy Johnson and Stephen Eastley finished in a fine 5th place.
Border Liners Orienteering Club 