Sprint races at Urban Leagues 2015

[Roger]

We've been asked by some of the GB Squad to provide Men's Elite and Women's Elite sprint courses wherever possible at next year's SOUL and UK Urban League races.

The focus will be on helping the team with WOC preparations and I imagine that most of the squad will be more concerned about WOC than the season-long points competition for the Urban Leagues but we'll add the categories and encourage the organisers to stage the races. No restrictions on who can enter these courses, although if they become outstandingly popular then the elites should be given preference.

Target winning times 12-15 minutes for the top guns. Sprints are covered by pages 24-28 of Appendix B (Course Planning) to the 2014 Rules.

[andypat]

Thanks Roger. Its great you've taken this on board for the UKUL as well as the SOUL.

[yted]

I'm planning a sprint at RAF Linton on 21st March (not the airfield but the office area - imagine a combination of uni campus and 70s council estate) - prologue and final - I think it's YHOA league and YHOA Champs but easy to plan a longer separate men'swomen's open. 14 min winning time for them means 21 minutes for me when I test run it! Flat I'm afraid. We were thinking of making it a chasing start for the final but it needn't be.

[Scott]

We were thinking of making it a chasing start for the final but it needn't be.

It might be worth getting some elite opinions on the merits of doing a chasing start sprint - with a sufficiently high-quality field I guess it could be a substitute for sprint relay practice(?)

[Tessa]

Just want to thank various league organisers for being so helpful in adding in these sprint classes and to thank the various planners/organisers in advance.

It's always been a real challenge in the UK to find enough sprint races in a season which is bonkers given how many urban races there are on the calendar. Hopefully this will go a long way to solving the problem.

There's been resounding support from the elites/M/W21s that I've spoken to and I really hope the attendances in these classes will increase because of it.

As for chasing starts, no reason why not - as you say, could be good relay practice. But I would stay away from the reverse chasing start with Scottish Sprint champs did a few years ago. It was great fun but having every competitor in the event scheduled to finish at the exact same time was chaotic!

[old lough]

The combination, over a weekend, of a Sprint on Saturday and an Urban race on Sunday is very attractive. Manchester earlier this summer was great and I am really looking forward to Bath in late August.

[sloaner]

And if anyone else fancies Bath (good practice for British Sprints) entries are still open on Fabian4

I am sure both the sprint races and urban will be great and a superb weekend in a lovely city.

[andy]

My ideal scenario for the sprint races at Urban events would be a free run after your own Urban race run. HALO offered this at Beverley earlier in the year which was brilliant (despite my lack of time to run it!) and it would be great to see it at every urban race.

[awk]

I'm planning a sprint at RAF Linton on 21st March (not the airfield but the office area - imagine a combination of uni campus and 70s council estate) - prologue and final - I think it's YHOA league and YHOA Champs but easy to plan a longer separate men'swomen's open. 14 min winning time for them means 21 minutes for me when I test run it! Flat I'm afraid. We were thinking of making it a chasing start for the final but it needn't be.

If it's the YHOA Champs (or any other sprint champs), then please, don't afflict the event with a chasing final. You wouldn't have a chasing middle or long distance championship, would you? It's a completely different style of event.

It would be good to have some sprint races counting towards the Urban league though.

[nooomember]

I agree, please don't have chasing sprint events.... Competitors just follow each other and at the very least are influenced and led into controls. The sport is meant to be individuals competing on their own against the course.
Please have regular or reduced length urban events or shorter sprints if necessary but not as 'urban' events, with at least one minute intervals.

On a separate note, there is queuing foreseen at white rose sprint as 250 competitors will be chasing each other around one course.. Simples - have two courses, at least!

[Lard]

I agree, please don't have chasing sprint events....

Surely, what would be better would be a mass start gaffled sprint - racing head-to-head but needing to know what you're doing at the same time.

[graeme]

"I like chasing sprints, so let's have more of them please."

This may or may not be true - different people are allowed to have different opinions. What I actually object to is hijacking a series/format (urban) that's popular into a format that hasn't proved popular enough to sustain its own series.

I strongly believe that urban is a great format for introducing newcomers, and changing NUL events so that "if you're under 40 you can't do the urban" would be a disaster.

I am a big fan of elite sprints too. At race the castles, enthusiasts can do both sprint and urban, but because of the World Ranking rules you have to sprint first. We're using touch-free punching (SI air) for the sprint and regular SI for the urban, so its likely that the controls will be separate (caveat - I haven't seen the courses).

Pre-BSMOC sprint training in Edinburgh : Aug 27th South Gyle; Sept 3rd Riccarton; Campus;

[andy]

I strongly believe that urban is a great format for introducing newcomers, and changing NUL events so that "if you're under 40 you can't do the urban" would be a disaster.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this sprint course idea was in addition to any urban courses? I'm a big fan of Urban races and would hate to be 'forced' to run a sprint while other classes are running an urban. It surely needs to be in addition?

[graeme]

It surely needs to be in addition?

Yes, I'm just reinforcing the point, since none of the events plugged above have offered this.

You write "Elite" and organisers read "M/W40-". It's a point I've had to clarify more times than I care to remember in RaceTheCastles.

[yted]

Ok so I'm just finalising the planning for Linton. This is a super sprint area... technical but without the confusion of split levels and uncrossable boundaries/areas so people should be able to maintain high speeds (shame it's flat really but then it is next to an airfield). It's going to be a chasing start but I'm reducing following by having loops. So in the final there will be a common first control and then 3 loops (first starter ABC, then BCA and so on). The last quarter of the course is common so if it's still a race by then it should be exciting.
Any further advice before I finish planning?
(This is YHOA sprint champs and YHOA urban league)