Latest on WOC 2015 bid

[graeme]

Middle (prologue and chase)

Chasing Sprint! At WOC! In Scotland! Hurrah!
(bounces around with excitement)

For those who think I'm obsessed with following, here's a great non sequitur

Sports Minister Shona Robinson said the contests would build on the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.
She said: "It is a wonderful legacy from 2014 that we will continue to have world class sporting events in Scotland beyond this milestone year.
"It further demonstrates our capability at staging such major events and further enhances our active messaging across the country."

[AndyO]

What great news! Congratulations to everyone involved in the bid. The bid document stressed the partnerships that would deliver a great WOC, and I'm sure that will happen.

The hard work starts now, but it's fantastic news!!

[Scott]

Unfortunately they've insisted on using a rubbish picture which has little or nothing to do with orienteering (through no fault of anyone involved in the bid, I might add - I saw the press release which included a fine picture of Scotia in action )

To be fair, I would be very surprised if BBC News have seen the BOF press release. Given that they have used a quote from Shona Robinson which isn't in the BOF release, I imagine they have run the story based on a different Scottish Government press release (probably via PA), which I doubt included a picture. I'm pretty sure they've used that library photo when reporting on the bid in the past - at least it's not a family sat on a picnic blanket!

But you're right: WOC 2015 is an excellent opportunity to challenge common perceptions of the sport and raise the profile nationally, and I think we're going to have to have think very carefully about how we approach this.

[Oldman]

The GBR bid was a result of excellent collaboration of all parties (including SOA, S6D and British Orienteering). I'm sure that good start can continue...

Hear ! Hear! We all hope so.

[mappingmum]

It's just been reported on An La (News) on BBC Alba in gaelic. Sports category.

[Mrs H]

I think we might find s6d 2013 gets increased entry because of it too? will be interesting to see anyway..

Mmm yes I'm sure that will be the case amongst WOC contenders and their supporters but i was thinking it was a good reason to go on a road trip in Sweden in 2013 to the far north for the Oringen that year as we will certainly be back to Moray for 2015

[Gross]

Can it happen without the friction between BOF and Scottish 6-Days as catalogued in "A few surplus maps"? I hope so as it all got a bit stressful at times in the run-up to '99.

No stress at all Jon.... as long as there was some knat spray close by

[greywolf]

Scotland get it

Excellent! The sprint is already planned (in my head ) and I can confirm there will be no olive green lawns...

[andypat]

Hopefully IOF will take the opportunity to revise ISSOM to stop this sort of thing recurring. Designating accessible grass as OOB is an accident waiting to happen. OOB should be there for a reason not just to assist the planner with making the course harder, otherwise the map starts to lose its validity.

[graeme]

So what would you do when the council tells you you can run through the park, but only on the paths?

[andypat]

Well for a start I'd consider whether that was the right location for a sprint race!

But seriously this isnt about having an argument about whos right - I think theres some situations that ISSOM still doesnt cover very well.

ISSOM defines olive green as an area with forbidden access such as a flower bed, a private area, a railway etc.

These are all things you can see on the ground. I dont think that open to the public grassy areas are covered by this. And I dont think its fair to map them as such.

The red hatching is defined in such a way as to discourage its use other than for last minute changes (so wait till the last minute then use it?) or unless dangerous.

What you need is a symbol for something which is normally in bounds but is OOB for the duration of the competition. To flag up to the competitor to avoid. But thats what the red hatching does - it just needs its definition tweaked.

[Scott]

I know I seem to be the only one who thinks this, but too much purple on the map = bad, and hashing = very bad. If we really must have a new symbol, please can it be a solid block of colour.

Alternatively, we could just all get used to the idea that olive green can also be used to map out-of-bounds grassy areas. It's not as if a grassy lawn with tarmac paths around it has an ill-defined boundary. I'm happy to accept that olive green maybe needs to be changed to a more distinctive colour than olive green, but I'm not convinced we need two separate symbols.

[andypat]

Youre not the only one who doesnt like red hashing Scott.

But I dont like when the map doesnt represent whats on the ground. And surely the whole point of discussing this is that the WOC has shown that mapping public grass as OOB doesnt work?

[graeme]

Do you know what caused the DQs in the qualifier?

To me the map in the park looks totally clear, and I can't believe any elite orienteer would have trouble with it: keep off the grass. I heard a rumour that some runners stepped onto the grass to avoid (having to stop to avoid) colliding with pedestrians.
That sounds plausible, and has nothing to do with unclear mapping.

Where the map is unclear (and we had this at PWT) is where a wall* goes from 3m high to 20cm high. Clearly uncrossable at one end, clearly crossable at the other. Cll the mapper can do is change symbol at some arbitrary point. At PWT, we decided beforehand that we wouldn't DQ anyone for crossing the bit marked "uncrossable" - the alternative being to tape to the "crossible/uncrossible" junction. WOC obviously came to the same conclusion, albeit after the fact.

* which may actually be a drop-off.

[El]

Congratulations to the entire bid team. This is fantastic news! It saddens (but does not surprise) me that some people on here are so quick to start making divisive negative remarks.