Sheffield Training Group night training programme
The Orienteering Foundation is pleased to award funding to the Sheffield Training Group to support their weekly night‑terrain training sessions, helping young orienteers access high‑intensity technical training and strengthening one of the UK’s most vibrant development hubs.
The Sheffield Training Group is a collaboration between experienced coaches Jenny and David Peel and SHUOC members Adam Conway and Dominic Green. Their weekly evening sessions bring together some of the country’s most promising young orienteers - including SHUOC athletes, SYO’s best under‑21s, and young seniors - for mass‑start, high‑intensity training on newly mapped open‑access terrain around Sheffield. The aim is to offer challenging and high quality orienteering to some of the best young orienteers in the country, with an emphasis on running together in terrain at night, navigating to small reflective posts on high‑quality maps.
These sessions fill an important gap in the development pathway. While SYO runs a successful club night for beginners and improvers, this programme is designed for competent, ambitious athletes targeting the highest levels of the sport. The group already attracts around 20 participants each week, several of whom have represented Great Britain at JWOC, EYOC, JEC and other international competitions.
The Foundation’s support will help remove barriers to participation. Not all athletes currently have access to suitable headlamps, and low power ones don’t allow them to run at high speed through the terrain in the dark. Funding will help the group purchase two high‑quality headlamps to loan out each week, ensuring that all athletes - regardless of personal resources - can train safely and at full speed. The award will also help support the ongoing costs of map printing and bagging, which the organisers have been personally funding.
The project strongly aligns with the Foundation’s aims of enhancement and innovation. It helps retain young people in the sport during and after university, supports a second UK centre of excellence (alongside Edinburgh), and fosters a positive training culture that encourages progression. It is also already delivering results, with members of the group recently winning M18, W18, M20 and W20 at the British Night Champs 2026.
The Foundation is delighted to support this initiative and looks forward to seeing the continued development of Sheffield’s talented young athletes.