A Capital Weekend - City Race & Southern Champs

[mike g]

I spent a while on SplitsBrowser looking at 3-4 on Mens Supervets and reached the conclusion that the fastest 27 on this leg had taken advantage of the fact that the uncrossable fence on the direct line had become crossable (i.e. unlocked) for a while.

On course 7 it's obvious from the splits who went through the gate, because the illegal route was very short and the legal route much longer. But if you DQ them what do you do about course 8, which had a longer leg to the same control, making it much less clear who transgressed. Only one person has an impossibly fast (for a W50) split for the leg, but is it fair to DQ her alone on that basis when she's unlikely to have been the only person who went through the gate?

[King Penguin]

Call me cynical or suspicious, but when I saw that leg 3-4 on MSV looked so short and obvious my immediate thought was "there must be a catch here", so I looked a bit more closely and saw that there was.

[awk]

But if you DQ them what do you do about course 8, which had a longer leg to the same control, making it much less clear who transgressed. Only one person has an impossibly fast (for a W50) split for the leg, but is it fair to DQ her alone on that basis when she's unlikely to have been the only person who went through the gate?

People often pose this sort of question. My reaction is that you can only do what the figures allow, but you should still do it. Referees/umpires can't spot all the fouls, but they still blow the whistle when they spot one.

[The Loofa]

tend to agree. I have just mailed those that matter (controller, jury, planners, organisers) asking for a decision and pointing this lot out. It was a piece of cake spotting transgressors on course 7, but legs to 172 are on many other courses and much longer. Those where the previous control was to the west had the option of a legal northern route that wasn't much longer than the illegal route in question and so would be impossible to spot from the splits.

[Scott]

There are similar issues with 3-4 on Course 1 - although here it's a little more questionable, as there is nothing on the map to say you can't run across the OOB road so long as you do it directly underneath the bridge... Still, there are a few very obvious "offenders" if you look at the splits.

Anyway, very enjoyable event, and a wonderful day to be running around the City. Contra NeilC, I thought the assembly area this year was better than last year's, if a little underventilated.

[Duncan]

UK Cup scores now updated from Sunday's Southern Champs: http://www.ukcup.org.uk/. That is all the 'preliminary' races now done for the year, just the UK Cup final to go. UK Cup final scores counts, regardless of whatever other races you've done. So anyone could jump up the list within another 60 points (especially if others near the top don't run).

Current men's standings:
1 Dave SCHORAH SHUOC 406
2 Anthony SQUIRE NOC 404
3 Murray STRAIN INT 398
4 Richard ROBINSON NOC 384
5 Oli JOHNSON SYO 370
6 Nick BARRABLE SYO 366
7 Ben STEVENS OUOC 351
8 Mark NIXON EUOC 318
9 Hector HAINES EUOC 305
10 Romualdas STUPELIS HOC 291
[so anyone currently 1st to 7th could win overall]

Current women's standings:
1 Sarah ROLLINS BAOC 477
2 Rachael ROTHMAN SHUOC 442
3 Tess HILL HOC 424
4 Claire WARD ESOC 422
5 Helen BRIDLE ESOC 422
6 Catherine TAYLOR EUOC 413
7 Rebecca HARDING EUOC 380
8 Heather GARDNER SROC 375
9 Riina KUUSELOOD 368
10 Helen GARDNER SLOW 289
[so anyone currently 1st - 5th could win overall]

[Mrs H]

However on the jog my eyesight let me down and there was nothing on the ground to cause me to pause and have a really good look at the map.

I just button holed Mr H over his split and he said much the same. He certainly didn't climb over anything or encounter any barrier. He has emailed the address and sent his apologies and asked for his result to be withdrawn. He had no intention of cheating (as he - said what would have been the point?) and thoroughly enjoyed the event.

[alanbrett]

Thanks to a few people who have helped out, Route Gadget for the Southern Champs is now available: http://www.chig.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-b ... =27&kieli=

[roadrunner]

I also thought the London race was another great event, and my course (5, M40+) certainly needed concentration all the way through. Like others, I nearly headed towards the uncrossable gate on the way to 172, but spotted it soon after leaving the previous control and adjusted my route accordingly. I just wish I could understand the Barbican - still got confused there, despite running through it on several previous events! I thought 12 to 13 (187 to 186) was a particularly good leg - some radically different route choices, all of a similar length.

Incidentally, there's something strange with the Routegadget for this event: on some courses (mine being one), the number of leg lengths displayed is one less than the number of legs (the missing one seems to be 7 to 8 on a couple of courses). Can someone who understands Routegadget explain that, please?

[Angry Haggis]

I did mumble about this at BOF major events. Everyone is still learning about controlling Urban races, but I think it's easy enough to identify "critical" locked gates on the course (MSV has 3), and that these need to be checked on the morning in the same way as controls. "critical" here means someone going through illegally would gain time and therefore have to be DQed.

Can't wait till next year!

It *was* checked at 09:40, by me, 20 minutes before the first start, and it was very definitely locked then. The landowner on the north side even told us, when we gained permissions, that we should be aware that the gate is locked at weekends. Many more gates are also normally locked at weekends but the Temple porter walked around with us, shortly before the start, and unlocked the gates that we requested.

We think what happened is that a resident spotted all these runners running up to the gate and opened it presuming it would be helpful for us.

Incidentally this same gate caused a more minor problem in 2009 when a late control location move meant that a course line (purple overprint) went across the line at a very shallow angle - so that the black line couldn't be seen at all - and wasn't broken. See here and a more full explanation here.

[Angry Haggis]

There are similar issues with 3-4 on Course 1 - although here it's a little more questionable, as there is nothing on the map to say you can't run across the OOB road so long as you do it directly underneath the bridge... Still, there are a few very obvious "offenders" if you look at the splits.

In order to get onto the road under the bridge, you need to cross an uncrossable wall, as there are two green-painted concrete safety barriers at the edge of the pavements (to stop vehicles striking the weak columns) that extend both ways beyond the bridge. Therefore, in this case at least , it is not possible to cross under the bridge without first going onto a roadway section that is not under the bridge, and therefore definitively marked as out of bounds.

See https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Farringdon+Street,+London&hl=en&ll=51.516763,-0.104977&spn=0.006296,0.014795&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=12.531343,30.300293&oq=Farringdon+Street&t=h&hnear=Farringdon+St,+London,+United+Kingdom&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.516763,-0.104977&panoid=KZ6F4goBzW5s0c55quZJMw&cbp=12,356.42,,0,6.53

The safety barriers weren't there in 2009 when awk very nearly did the same thing

[Knee Deep Mud!]

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend's orienteering. An urban event in the sunshine that more than lived up to the (very) high standards set in previous years, followed by some 'proper' forest orienteering.

Was London the best yet? In my opinion not quite (having run them all). I think last year's courses, throwing us into the Barbican straight from the start line and again when we were tired at the end of the course was more technically challenging. However, still one of the best planned and organised events around, and still probably the highlight of this year's orienteering for me.

Epping was great, despite spending most of my run in a largely empty forest with Mother Nature ensuring I was totally drenched. I've probably only orienteered a handful of times in weather worse than this. A completely contrasting challenge to the previous day. The free chocolate bar at download was a very welcome sight

Anyone who has done an urban event should know that you need to be on the lookout for dead ends and the obvious route being blocked by an uncrossable feature. That particular uncrossable fence is a LOT clearer than some of the finer detail elsewhere on the map. As Angry Haggis says

Personally I'm amazed at the number of people that didn't read their map. It's an orienteering event, not a running event!

[FRBlackSheep]

Scott, luckily for me Angry Haggis beat me to it with a more technical response to your comment re crossing 'under' a bridge to get around the OOB.

Yet I still feel the need to ask, why is it the course in question is called 'elite' if we then have to explain that a 3 dimensional feature such as a bridge crossing will naturally not show that which is below it - surely an 'elite' orienteer is capable of inferring sufficient detail from a map which tries to portray multiple levels where a clearly OOB road crosses underneath.

Also although the time saved may not have been much,when places are separated by mere seconds any such trangressions which gain even the merest seconds makes a difference.

[graeme]

surely an 'elite' orienteer is capable

Elite orienteers are capable of many things, however they only actually do the things which enable them to get where they want to go in the shortest possible time. Here are two quotes from world champion AM Hausken in CompassSport.

"I gave up map contact on purpose, either to plan future route choices or just to run"
"If I'm supposed to read every detail on the map to be sure I'm not disqualifies I can promise you one thing: I'm going to be far too slow"

Translation - I don't care where I am and I didn't read the map.

Well, not reading the map may be a bad idea for the competitor, but anyone who plans an event assuming that everyone will be diligently mapreading is misguided.

n.b. this is a general observation, not a criticism of the London Race.

[Drdr]

Really enjoyed the London City Race - as my first real urban race I was particular about reading the black lines carefully and like some others was uber suspicious of short legs on my course 7. Went the legal way from 3 to 4, so will be watching with interest how the organisers handle the transgressors (some of whom seem to be shown on RouteGadget).