British Sprint Champs and Relays

[sborrill]

I was impressed with both of the events at the weekend and thought the organisation was excellent on both days. Could perhaps have done with more toilets though!

Whether or not you had to pay for parking was unclear on Saturday; final details said not, car park itself said yes. I liked that everything was so close and the arena layout was pretty good even if it meant spectators were a bit more ad hoc. Competition area was pretty complex and meant a lot of concentration - look at the high number of mispunches, especially on the Elite courses.

On Sunday, finals start lists were available in plenty of time. I found the start teams very efficient for both the qualifiers and finals. I actually quite liked the shorter finals courses (given the heat!), but it really meant that every second counted and tiny mistakes were punished.

[yted]

Agreed - excellent events.

[andy L]

agree totally.
two very good quality enjoyable events with challenging and enjoyable courses. shorter final course added a bit of extra spice.
excellent clear details for both days that were published well in advance.
IT seemed to work fantastically well. Each event must be a massive challenge.
My only constructive suggestion would be on the sprint relays some of the kites hung directly on linear features without stake did get squished down so weren't really that visible at speed. Hard one to solve though without back breaking trestles and creating access issues...

[buzz]

Two fun events I thought - I particularly enjoyed the relay which made good use of a technically challenging area. And short finals gets my vote - although mainly due to my lack of fitness!

Just one comment - one of the gaffled sections the 55+ relay was almost a minute difference due to steps and bridges - even gaffles make it a proper head to head to race which is more fun, fairer, and gives everybody a better idea of how the race is progressing. Hard to get right though when you've got so many courses to plan.

Oh and well done to whoever organised the weather!

[awk]

TJust one comment - one of the gaffled sections the 55+ relay was almost a minute difference due to steps and bridges.

Which section? I can spot seconds difference,but not a full minute.

[buzz]

TJust one comment - one of the gaffled sections the 55+ relay was almost a minute difference due to steps and bridges.

Which section? I can spot seconds difference,but not a full minute.

Controls 13 to 17.
https://www.boc.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#61&course=4

The long gaffle F was about 95m further and it had to go down steps and under the bridge to 15 and then round the back to 16. The short gaffle D just went straight over the bridge from 15 and then had shorter 16-17.

I lost 50 seconds on the guys I was running with and Spookster lost a minute on Quentin through that section on the last leg although Spookster made a couple of mistakes as well.

Perhaps not a minute but at least 30 seconds difference and more for the slower runners. The longer gaffle was also technically harder - a lot more people made mistakes according to Winsplits.

You were lucky to have the long gaffle on first leg - on the last leg even 10 secs difference would have been too much for Spookster to make up on Quentin from 17 to the finish.

Great event though, and cracking courses - just a plea for equal gaffles.