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Latest News
Peter Hodkinson has joined IFK Lidingö SOK. Their website announcement and interview.
Peter is over-wintering in Australia. His Attackpoint Training Blog.
Peter joins Hector Haines and Will Gardner at Lidingö where the coach is reigning Forest Relay World Champion Johan Runesson. You can hear Johan as the main interview of episode 14 of the orienteering podcast The Run In.
Charlotte Ward starts (from the IOF Web-TV)
World Cup Sprint race - Tuesday 29th October 2019 - Songtang Village
Update - Results
"Perfect sprint orienteering terrain" said Jonas Merz on the commentary. The races were close. The narrow, and sometimes very narrow, alleys are not something that many of the athletes have experience with. Exceptions might be men's winner Yannick Michiels who has done quite a lot of races in China with Park World Tour, and of course the home team athletes.
It was the most consistent runners who took the wins. Yannick Michiels only had one fastest leg, and Shuangyan Hao only three. Women's runner-up Simona Aebersold was close to the win - she lost more than the winning margin on leg 14-15. And Tove Alexandersson lost more than the winning margin on leg 2-3.
- Men - 1.Yannick Michiels; 2.Maxime Rauturier; 3. Li ZhuoYe.
- Women- 1.Shuangyan Hao; 2.Simona Aebersold; Sara Hagstrom.
Charlotte Ward and Kirstin Maxwell. credit: Hello 5G.
Sunday 27th October 2019 - Nanhai Movie and TV Town
The Sprint Relay of the China World Cup Round took place at 06:45 UK-time. The venue was:
An extremely scenic location of an open-air film studio complex with numerous replica townscapes and temples, combining the landscape of a city park and suburban park with strong cultural atmosphere. There is both planted and natural vegetation, with some small areas of open forest depending on route choice. Very good runnability.
There were five teams in contention at the start of the last leg, three of them Swedish. Handling the complex navigation well and running strongly it was Elena Roos of Switzerland who took the victory. The Swedish second team, with Sara Hagstrom, were second, and Norway with Andrine Benjaminsen were third.
The Great Britain team of Charlotte Ward, Peter Hodkinson, Ralph Street and Cecilie Andersen, were 13th, eighth nation.
partial screenshot from the web TV broadcast
A really impressive run at Xiqiao Mountain by today's final starter Gustav Bergman won the race and the men's 2019 World Cup. His compatriot Tove Alexandersson won the women's race, making 7 out of 7 wins this year.
As expected, it was very tough going in part: it was hot and humid, it was often steep, it was sometimes forest "jungle", and there was a lot of detail not all of which can be shown on the map. Runners had to choose and identify the best, but sometimes a little indistinct, tracks. Gustav said in a post-race interview losing a little time here and there was inevitable. And winning times were on the long side.
There was good TV coverage of the racing in the English language web broadcast. The now usual fixed and running cameras provided great pictures and GPS tracking helping analysis of the route choice legs.
Previous Map
We use UK-times in this article.
Saturday 26th October 2019 - Xiqiao Mountain
Web-TV broadcast from 7am UK-time. The broadcast will cover the women's race first, with the final starter at 07:40 that should wrap up about 8:20. At that time there are 25 men still to start. The temperature is forecast to be 27degC and it may be somewhat humid.
Xiqiao Mountain is a well-known tourist destination covering a large area. It's a national forest park and national scenic area. There is also a big statue.
Xiqiao Mountain is an extinct volcano with a history of 45000 years. It was a largest manufacturing field of stoneware in South China in ancient times. It is well-recognized as the origin of civilization along the Pearl River.
The fourth and final round of the 2019 World Cup takes place in Nanhai District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China. This is close to Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions, around the Pearl River Delta. Teams from China, Hong Kong China and Macau China are taking part.
- Saturday 26th October - Middle Distance (c5am-10am UK time)
- Sunday 27th October - Sprint Relay (start 6:45am UK time, TV broadcast starts 6:30am)
- Tuesday 29th October - Sprint (c5am-8:30am UK time, TV broadcast starts 6am)
There is Live Internet TV coverage (for a fee) with commentary from Katherine Bett and Jonas Merz. Sunday's Sprint Relay, in Nanhai Movie and TV Town - a purpose built facility occupying over a square kilometre and used for over 500 TV programmes and movies rates to be particularly good to watch, and being so early it may get you in the mood for taking exercise in the rest of the day.
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Featured Articles
Picture: Last year's GB World Cup Team
In 2020 it is the first Sprint Orienteering World Championships, with Sprint Relay, Individual Sprint and the new Knockout Sprint. Denmark host, from 6th - 11th July, with the racing in Kolding, Fredericia and Vejle.
The European Championships are hosted by Estonia centred on Rakvere, and are the week of 6th - 23rd August. They include Middle, Long and Forest Relay.
The World Champs are not included in this year's World Cup, the European Champs are (as Round 2). There are two other rounds: Switzerland 20th - 24th May is Round 1, and Italy 1st - 6th October is the World Cup Final.
The Junior World Champs are in Turkey from 28th June - 5th July.
All are accompanied by open races, providing an opportunity for spectating orienteers to take a full-on experience of running and following the international racing.
A sport's World Championships aren't just about medals. They are an occasion when the sport celebrates its attraction and strengths, and shows the top level of the sport to those who take part at any level and to a wider audience.
Expect therefore that next week the International Orienteering Federation will say how many countries are taking part, and for all the competitions to have features that help make a spectacle. So for example there will be some easier controls sited with TV in mind - there will be many other tougher controls out of sight of the cameras. (The championships are carried live by Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Estonian National TV, as well as by Web-TV - just 10 euro for the three days.)
Nevertheless it might be interesting to think about the destination of the 18 medals.
Kangasala-Jukola Logo from the Organisation Website
The weekend of 15th/16th June is the Venla and Jukola Relays in Finland. It's both a big festival weekend - the above logo is out directing traffic on the main motorways several days beforehand - and one of the main competitive weekends of the international orienteering calendar. The relays are a mix of top-level and participation sport like the London Marathon but with a team ethos. It's a tradition, and it gets a great deal of general interest in Finland. There is also something of a link to Finnish national consciousness with it moving round the forests and its naming from the first great work of Finnish literature.
Some numbers: The competition centre, accommodation and parking takes 70 hectares. There are about 1750 tents, 450 provided by the military. 50,000 people will be in and around the competition area over the weekend.
As they say "For a good accomplishment the orienteer needs resolution, persistency and brisk sports spirit."
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Current Videos
Competition Reports
Here's a summary of six British Championships of 2019.
Classic Races Winners, Alasdair McLeod and Megan Carter-Davies.
Photo: Rob Lines
Night
Organised by Mar Orienteering Club at Muir of Dinnet on Saturday 23rd February.
Women
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- Fay Walsh (Edinburgh University)
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- Hazel Wright (Mar)
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- Claire Ward (Interlopers)
The 2019 Nokian Tyres World Orienteering Championships (WOC) took place in Østfold, Norway from 13th - 17th August. Østfold is the county of the south-east part of Norway, between Oslo and Sweden. The event centre was the city of Sarpsborg. The Championships were very well organised, and the accompanying spectator races were also well attended.
The nine athletes of the Great Britain Team for the 2019 World Champs. Credits: Matt Speake by Karl Orud, Jo Shepherd by WOC2018 Latvia, Charlotte Watson and Megan Carter-Davies by South London Orienteers (from the "Get up to Speed" videos), others by On The Red Line.
It was a forest only World Championships. All three finals, long, middle and relay, were held from a specially constructed arena at Mørk Golf Club, in the middle of the previously unmapped forest. Long and middle used an arena start, and all courses had an arena passage.
Great Britain took a team of nine athletes, supported by Team Manager Ed Nicholas, Coach Liz Campbell and Physio Jane Ashbrook. Of the nine, four are based in Britain (two of whom have spent several years in Sweden), four in Norway and one in Sweden. All had run at least two World Chanps before.
Full results are in IOF Eventor - WOC2019.
JK2019 Middle Distance Prizewinners, credit: Iain Shepherd
The 2019 took place in central Southern England from April 19th - 22nd.
- Friday was a World Ranking Sprint Race at Aldershot Garrison
- Saturday was a World Ranking Middle Distance Race at Old Windmill Hill
- Sunday was a Long Distance Race at Cold Ash
- Monday was the JK Relays, the biggest UK relays competition, at Minley.
The weather was exceptionally warm and dry, and everything about the competition was very good, except the results service and timing which were not up to it.
(It's late Tuesday evening now, and "All results are now under review and will be published as soon as they are validated.")
Top three in the Women's Overall enjoying the weather, credit: Iain Shepherd