Major domestic/international event clashes

[distracted]

After a discussion recently about the possibility of a Tiomila trip in 2012, I went to check when it is - and it turns out (currently) to be clashing with next year's British Champs (5th/6th May) in the Lakes. What this will mean for the elite side of things I don't know.

This isn't a new problem (this year's British Champs moved to avoid a clash with the (now cancelled) Nordic Champs, previous clashes with Tiomila). Is it that case that in the UK our events are scheduled well in advance of those in Scandinavia/Europe, so that fixtures group don't know what is going on abroad? Or would it just be simpler to move our major events in the calendar to minimise the chances of the clash happening in the first place?

[Duncan]

The BOC 2012 / Tio Mila clash has been noted in the Elite Competitions Group, but it has been agreed to just live with it. Yes some elites won't be at BEOC and that isn't ideal. Alternative options were explored (e.g. move all of BOC+BEOC, or just move BEOC), but all felt to be less desirable, especially given the event is only a year away so the scope to change things is limited.

Usually the fixtures group do keep an eye on international fixtures and aim to avoid clashes with domestic races. But it is dificult given international races are scheduled with less notice than we like to have in the UK. E.g. at present we can see Jukola dates up to 2014, but World Cup only up to 2013 (and then still provsional / tentative), and Tio Mila dates only to 2012.

In this particular case, we've been screwed by the date of Tio Mila changing. It is almost always one of the last weekends in April, and that is when it was originally advertised for, when the major events like BOC were slotted into the domestic calendar. But then the Swedes moved it to first w/e in May, probably to put it immediately before the Europeans which are also in Sweden in May.