WOC 2024

[buzz]

Just in case anyone's missed the build up, WOC 2024 starts tomorrow (Friday 12th July) in Edinburgh.

I know its not real orienteering but it is the World Championships

You can follow all the action here https://results.woc2024.org/woc/
Or here https://orienteering.sport/event/world-orienteering-championships-2024/welcome/ Live streaming of the finals costs EUR25.

First up the qualification race for the individual sprint. GB Start times:

Ralph Street Men-2 09:01
Nathan Lawson Men-1 09:19
Peter Molloy Men-3 09:38

Grace Molloy Women-2 09:46
Megan Carter Davies Women-1 09:52
Charlotte Ward Women-3 10:03
Fiona Bunn Women-2 10:17

We get an extra competitor in the women's race as Megan won the last sprint WOC!

The finals start from 15.10

Good luck to the GB team!

[Scott]

Live streaming of the finals is free if you're in the UK!
https://eurovisionsport.com/explore/sport?id=EBU-Home-Orienteering

[buzz]

World class course planning from Frank in the Sprint Qualifier.

[buzz]

Top 15 in each heat qualify for the final.

[NeilC]

I was really impressed with the organisation yesterday. I'm sure that there were many hitches behind the scenes but nothing was obvious from the event centres.

As Graeme previously mentioned artificial barriers are a game changer and allow the provision of more routechoice. I am concerned though that an increased used of barriers, "fake OOB" and complex multi-level sections could push sprint racing towards those indoor events where the organisers provide sofas for competitors to sit on whilst they plan the next fiendish leg. IMO yesterday's WOC races didn't cross that line and provided a fair, but challenging test of sprint orienteering. The use of barriers and OOB areas meant that it was difficult for teams to plan potential legs in advance and few of the top runners had clean runs (contributing to the slightly long winning times).

[yted]

The barriers (and new routes that are usually private or locked) do mean that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

[buzz]

Wow - what a fantastic WOC so far - brilliant courses made for really exciting races with the medals up for grabs right to the end. Well done to the organising team in particular the course planners Frank and Graeme - really clever courses - some of the best I've seen in sprint orienteering.

[ianandmonika]

And continued to be fantastic. Congratulations to all the volunteers, mappers, planners, controllers, organisers and eurovision.

[buzz]

And continued to be fantastic. Congratulations to all the volunteers, mappers, planners, controllers, organisers and eurovision.

Yes a truly spectacular event with 100s of people putting in many 1000s of hours of work well done Scotland!

The course planning was excellent again in the knockout sprint and made for some really exciting races - respect to Joe and JonX and the rest of the planning team.

I also thought Katherine and James did a brilliant job on the TV commentary. The one thing that I thought let the event down a little was the TV production which didn't always capture the full story and left the commentators guessing what was going on at times. They did a great job of painting over the cracks though.

[Snail]

Sprint Orienteering still needs to retain the elements of reading the competition map, and making route choices, at speed and perhaps under mental or physical stress. So I think it inevitable that Sprint WOCs will increasingly make changes to the 'natural' environment, whether through adding restrictions (barriers, OOBs, closing gates, ...) or opening new options (gaps in fences or through private areas or ...). Otherwise existing maps / satellite / streetview make it too easy for athletes to 'know' an area, and run / make route choices almost automatically, without really having to read the competition map.

Artificial changes also enable use of areas that might otherwise be relatively 'boring'.

An alternative would be to return to the old system of the exact area being unknown until the morning of the race ("within 50 km of [the event centre]"), but that is unfriendly for spectators, and probably very difficult to keep secret.

I think the planners in Edinburgh did an excellent job.

[King Penguin]

Looked to me like Megan lost a medal through a path which was open in the KOS semi-final being closed again for the Final.
Full credit to her for being the only one to take the best north route on the E-W leg in the final away from the veterans residence.

[Snail]

... a path which was open in the KOS semi-final being closed again for the Final.....

Hadn't spotted that. I think if you are changing the map between rounds it perhaps ought to be highlighted to athletes at least as a possibility

[frostbite]

Full credit to her for being the only one to take the best north route on the E-W leg in the final away from the veterans residence.

I think the advantage of that route was its relative simplicity. Admittedly it's hard to tell from the GPS, but it looks like the pack in the women's race made a significant mistake, running around the building past #2 when they could have gone along the near side of it.

The men's pack didn't make that mistake but it looks like they took the slightly longer southern option to get round the next barrier.

[Scott]

I think if you are changing the map between rounds it perhaps ought to be highlighted to athletes at least as a possibility

To be fair, it seems pretty standard for the artificial barriers to move between rounds. I think it's happened to some degree at all the World Cup KO Sprints in the last couple of years.

[graeme]

Full credit to her for being the only one to take the best north route on the E-W leg in the final away from the veterans residence.

It's not the best route. It's just that Tove and co. found an even worse route running all the way round the school past #2.