Media Centre

11 February 2010

National Centre for Orienteering makes home in Sheffield

The sport of orienteering has found its way to Sheffield with the creation of a National Centre of Excellence in the city.

Sheffield Hallam University's Sport Hallam and U Sport at the University of Sheffield have joined forces with the British Orienteering Federation to establish an official centre for the sport. The centre will be based at Sheffield Hallam and coaches from the British Coaching Federation will offer sessions.

Sport Hallam's Frazer Johnson said: "With its proximity to the Peak District, strong local orienteering community and successful clubs, Sheffield has long been a centre of activity for performance-level orienteering.

"Seven members of the British Orienteering team are currently based in one of Sheffield´s universities, and we are expecting this number to rise next year.

"This partnership will allow all athletes to utilise Sport Hallam´s Talented Athlete Programme and experts and facilities in the Centre for Sport and Exercise Science. This, along with the addition of a British Orienteering coach, should help to strengthen orienteering teams based in the City."
The University of Sheffield team are currently British University and Colleges Sport (BUCS) national champions and the University currently has 12 sports bursary students from the sport.

Simon Frost, General Manager of U Sport at the University of Sheffield said: "With a very high proportion of participants in Orienteering passing through higher education this should provide excellent opportunities for both universities to attract high calibre students."

Gareth Candy from the British Orienteering Federation said: "By utilising Sheffield´s range of academic courses and encouraging collaboration on talented athlete support the British Orienteering Federation is keen to build and develop a mutually beneficial partnership."

For further information please contact: Lauren Anderson, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2221046 or email l.h.anderson@sheffield.ac.uk
or Joe Field at Sheffield Hallam University on 0114 225 2074 or email pressoffice@shu.ac.uk

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