European Champs 23km for M21E

[Duncan]

The European Champs 2014 are being held in Portugal in early April. Bulletin 3 just released at http://www.eoc2014.fpo.pt/. A staggering (literally?!) 23.2km and 700m climb for the men's long final (15.1km and 480m for women). Presumably the usual estimated winning time of 90-100 mins. Anyone ever seen an elite long distance race that long before? (I'm talking "classic" orienteering not ultra-long or long-O or anything). Let's hope our athletes have been training hard....

[Gross]

Hope they managed to get the north lines correct.... unlike a previous World Cup

[PhilJ]

any idea if GB are sending a team, nothing on the BO Performance site as usual, only a spreadsheet showing training/competitions for the year upto Oct 2014. If BO want us to "back the GB team", it would be good to know if we had one!

Thought BO were going to get better at communicating with the members?

[Spookster]

any idea if GB are sending a team, nothing on the BO Performance site as usual, only a spreadsheet showing training/competitions for the year upto Oct 2014. If BO want us to "back the GB team", it would be good to know if we had one!

Thought BO were going to get better at communicating with the members?

Agreed, our communications about GBR teams do need to be better.

The Performanace Programme year plan confirms that EOC is part of the programme so the GBR squads will be there.

We do need some website news articles about it though... to get you to "back the GBR team".

[graeme]

Implies 4 mins/km? I wonder if anyone ran that fast ever in the UK? The JK at Clumber Park is the fastest classic mins/km I can recall, but not sub-4s. And I don't imagine if we hosted EOC we'd use Clumber

[maprun]

If (big if) my memory is correct the 1997 M21E British Champs at Clumber Park was around 20k and a lot of people including myself thought the planner had got the course lengths too long. I still remember looking at the Elite results board in awe, as a certain young Jamie Stevenson had won in a time that was close to 80 mins.

[maprun]

Ooops, missed your post Graeme.

[Lard]

Graham Gristwood ran 17.1k in 72 minutes in a race in Portugal only last weekend - that's sub 4:15/k which should see him running within the 90 to 100 minute bracket at EOC all being well, so I have every confidence our athletes have the physical ability to do this.

[greywolf]

WOC 2013 Long was 19.8km (+610m)
Culbin Classic 2009 Deep Black was 18.2km, fairly sure there hasn't been a longer GB M21E race since.

Graham Gristwood ran 17.1k in 72 minutes in a race in Portugal only last weekend

That was his GPS distance, the race itself was 16.0km (+210)
http://www.coac.pt/ALOT2014/Results/FIN ... OTAIS.html
so more like 4.30 mins/km (still very impressive)

The terrain must be blindingly quick if they think sub 100 mins for 23.2km is possible, likewise for the Middle which is 8.2km (+290) for a 30-35 min winning time... but then at WMOC 2008 some of the old folk were close to 5mins/km at the 2nd qualifying race...

[Arnold]

Fastest mins/km I can remember was Marten Bostrom at flat sandy Jukola in 2004 - 8.5km in 31:37 : http://results.jukola.com/tulokset/en/j2004_ju/ju/osuusajat/5/

23km in under 100 does sound optimistic but not impossible. Though historically WOC classic winning times have always been on the long side.

[Big Jon]

23km in under 100 does sound optimistic but not impossible. Though historically WOC classic winning times have always been on the long side.

WOC classic races are usually over-planned - "lets just add a bit here and there to make sure they are over 90 mins - usually ends up 98-105 mins".... macho planning?

[Freefall]

I can confirm the WOC 2015 Long Distance race will not be over 23 km.

[sloaner]

Maprun, your memory is not quite right it was nearly 20km (19.8km), but Jamie ran just over 90 and some bloke called Mike Jubb was second - it must have been easy

http://www.noc-uk.org/BOC97/r970517b.htm

1991 JK may have been quicker

[gg]

The race I ran was relevant, but apparently there is no rock on the EOC map, which will increase the speed (and reduce the number of difficult controls!)

It was also very wet in the marshes, which might dry out in the current 20-25 degree heat.

http://3drerun.worldofo.com/2d/index.ph ... %5D=105266

[awk]

Culbin Classic 2009 Deep Black was 18.2km, fairly sure there hasn't been a longer GB M21E race since.

Not since, obviously (!): the 1978 British Champs M21A (no E in those days) in Tentsmuir was of that order as well, as far as I recall.

Later: in fact, not quite: 17.3km. I do remember the general feeling that the courses at this event were very long, but when I look at most of them, they look rather ordinary now. In fact, the older courses look short. Shows how far the sport has come technically and physically.