Horses for courses

[rocky]

a lot of the apparent "specialisation" preferences of our top boys comes down to the schedule of WOC-week. With the Sprint (2 races) and Long final on consecutive days (in 2011) it is impossible to run both without compromising your Long race. AFAICan remember Hubmann was the only runner to do both at the top level this year, and his long result (6th?) was lower than he has produced in the past. Last year the sprint was before the heats for the other races so either the sprint+middle combo or sprint+long combo was doable but middle+long(+relay) meant 4(5) races in 6(7) days, including the tough long distance final in the middle of the week - I remember how exhausted Scott was after his 6th place in the long: he could barely get out of bed the next day, let along get ready to run the middle final.

WOC 2003 set out a style which seems to be the archetypal design of WOC disciplines: urban sprint, technical middle and physical, route choicey long (relay was similar terrain to long). In events where this is the pattern the sprint and long become the physical races while the middle is the technical one. It's more than possible for an athlete to be well prepared for the sprint and long and perform well in both. Comparing 400m and 5000m runners is a bit misleading. 5000m/marathon is a better one. Look at the training schedules of an elite marathon runner and they won't be that different to a 5000m runner. Mo Farah broke the British 5000m and 1/2 marathon records this year.

Not that this is a topic I'm quite interested in...

And YES we need more SPRINT races. Even if Urban event organisers just offer a 2x sprint class on top of the existing offering and let the market choose. When I got to the World Cup in June this year I had only run two sprint competitions all year - BEOC and JK. Admittedly I missed the Scottish Sprints in order to run an XC race (ran it a couple of weeks later with no flags) but that was the only real opportunity I missed. Urban events are fun but they lack the same "every second counts" emphasis of sprint racing.

-m

[awk]

And YES we need more SPRINT races. Even if Urban event organisers just offer a 2x sprint class on top of the existing offering and let the market choose. Urban events are fun but they lack the same "every second counts" emphasis of sprint racing.

Speaking from a rather different point of the competitive spectrum - completely agree! That every second counts point was really rammed home at this weekend's Aire chasing sprint. Have been looking at the lead in to the British Sprint champs this year, and it's rather thin.

[Red Adder]

If the sport had a far wider base (eg 100,000 BOF members - not 10,000) and younger age profile you probably would have more specialisation as each discipline would be far more competitive and in order to be successful it would be more important to concentrate on your best skills.

[NeilC]

When we have established orienteers claiming that they don't like score events because they are too mentally challenging it's not too difficult to understand why it's so hard to persuade road/xc runners to take up our wonderful sport. The jump from a 10k road race to a forest orienteering course has to be so much greater than the jump from a line event to a score event. By that logic urban events ought to have greater potential to get those "more people", the trouble is many established orienteers (not necessarily the same subset as above) think that these are too boring to either compete in or to organise. I have every sympathy for the new chair of the Events and Competitions Committee.

P.S really looking forward to the urban score Kent Night Cup event this evening.

[pete.owens]

To be fair, the situation has improved a bit for middle races over the last year or so, and more clubs are starting to put them on, but the number of "proper" sprint (as opposed to 40+min urban) races remains pitifully small, probably because clubs remain (not unreasonably) worried that people won't travel for a short race, or even for two short races back-to-back.

There is still time to enter next week's Deeside Double Weekend.
http://www.deeside-orienteering-club.or ... #e20111112
A middle distance race on Saturday followed by two proper sprint races on the Sunday plus a free bonus microsprint.

[andy]

And YES we need more SPRINT races.

See you at the ESOC sprint O then! 2 sprint races in one day, it's usually at the end of jan sometime...

[Kitch]

Some thoughts on why we do well in certain disciplines.

In general
More of our better results have been in the Sprint (medals from the few best athletes plus many other great athletes in high places)

Some of our best results have been in the Middle - gold, silver, bronze at WOC these have been achieved by only the few, best athletes.

The same few, best athletes have also achieved excllent result in the Long, though not so many and not as highly placed as in the Middle.

More athletes have a relay medal than any other discipline.
I would suggest that relay alligns closely to the Middle (for distance and for challenge, which if not always technical is always extreme for the psychological pressure).

So more people are good at sprint - Why?
Two places to look.
Psychology. We started well in sprint - Jamie won gold in its second running at WOC, two years later Heather won bronze in Japan. Plus many other great results in the early years.
As a result psychologically Brits believe they can be good at the sprint - so they are.
Physical. Sprint is fast and furious and most often in parkland / urban. It is not usuallyr out in the wilds with rocks, tussocks, heather, brashings and green.
Brits do alot of training over the kind of terrain used for sprint so they are well adapted to it.

Why not so good at the long ?
Here I think the converse of the Sprint arguments apply.
Only Yvette has ever won a WOC medal at Classic/Long so I think we fall short on the confidence that we can do it.
Long demands huge fitness, strength and endurance to race through the roughest terrain for the required time and distance. We don't have enough races to practise this, but also I don't think that Brits, for the most part, have the right kind of physical fitness to win over the long distance in terrain. We don't do enough of the right training, running in terrain.

So Middle - some great results.
Its technical, we are good at technical, thinking fast, staying in control under pressure - thats part of the sprint success.
We, at least some are, are fit enough over the shorter distance to cope with the physical demands of the terrain.

Relay - like Middle plus great team spirit handed down from before our first medal success in 1993.

[andypat]

And YES we need more SPRINT races. Even if Urban event organisers just offer a 2x sprint class on top of the existing offering and let the market choose. When I got to the World Cup in June this year I had only run two sprint competitions all year - BEOC and JK.

Interesting - just to clarify - you mean like the Chester races 2 sprints back to backish?
I'd actually go for that too in preference to a long urban although as a previous sprint and urban race planner I imagine you'd almost have to separate the two sets of controls otherwise the sprint might not live up to expectations.

[King Penguin]

I think the prologue and chase are on separate areas.
Unfortunately the prologue starts are quite early due to access constraints given the date.

[EddieH]

I agree that we are lacking true sprint races, and personally I love the qualification - final format. However for our last Moray Mix I asked on Nopesport what people would prefer. My suggestion of two sprint races in neighbouring coastal villages was very firmly vetoed by a great majority of potential punters, so we ended up with a very successful long event in Lossiemouth.

Next year I have a real dilemma as I will be going to a business meeting on [i]one[/i] of the days of the British sprint/middle weekend. I probably enjoy the uncommon sprint format the most, but on the other hand I take the middle a bit more seriously. Not a decision I find easy to make.

[mikey]

More importantly when is the next Moray Mix.

Should be enticing for a good few WOC 2015 candidates from overseas.

[graeme]

I can think of nothing I regret more than overpreparing for specific races. Especially in orienteering so much can go wrong (or right) on a one off race.

I believe this extends to elite level too - if you're old enough - remember Seb Coe, the greatest 800m runner in Moscow. If not, maybe you remember Yvette Hague's diligent preparation for the classic in 1999. Or the world's leading 10000 runner Mo Farah at this year's world athletics. Or the damage done to Thierry's middle and relay running by his concetration on classic distance this year.

In general two chances are better than one. Specialization, especially in training, doesn't
make as much difference as you think.

And at this point I'd like to congratulate britishorienteering's poster boy for specialization in sprint on his excellent recent, er, marathon.

[EddieH]

Next Moray Mix.

As a small club this is only intended as a biennial event. However as the 6 days is in Moray in 2013 we intend to miss that year - so expect 2014.

I hadn't considered any WOC factor but I guess we'd better advertise it as such - (Maybe we need a sprint option in the urban as suggested elsewhere).

[Kitch]

I think you are more into the realms of psychology with your elite examples Graeme.
Coe, Baker and Farrah all went out and won the next race, the one they perhaps were not majoring in.
I think primarily that shows a psychological reaction to the failure in the first race.

They were clearly fit enough to do anything.

They were expected by others and possibly themselves to do well in a certain race but I think its true they each got the tactics wrong on the day. (at least from following comments and discussion that is what I conclude).
Next race they had all had a kick up the arse, reacted positively and won.

[graeme]

Kitch, I completely agree with what you write. My point is that to have that "next race" opportunity at the same peak phase of your training you must have breadth (unless you're Graeme Obree in the hour, and nobody is).

If you focus everything on one race, there's no scope for redemption. And when people of the quality I mentioned can "get their tactics wrong on the day": how much more for the rest of us?

Old bloke reminiscing alert: under 30s look away now...
In the 5-year period when I was a club standard runner, I ran one 5km, one 10km and one half marathon. The rest of the time I was busy training, or "peaking" for this, that or the other O-race, XC, or hill race. Now when anyone asks about PBs, it's just woulda coulda shoulda, which, frankly, is crap. And for all that peaking, I was already over 40 before I finally lucked out and made the (open) Scotland team. Focussing and peaking on a single race was the completely accepted, standard wisdom then - I wish I'd never heard of it and joined the guys racing week in week out..