British NIght Championships 2016 (2)

[buzz]

Links: -
Winsplits http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=40769

Thanks!

[Gnitworp]

The map should have been at 7500, which would have greatly improved the event.

Additionally I'd have liked a more vivid brown and 2.5m contours.

[Adrian]

Excellent event. Looking at it now, the map seems fine; I don't think there's much that could've been done, apart from priting at 1:7500; would that've been allowed for a Level A event? I haven't found a good solution to my own eyesight problems so I did what I usually do: stop, lift my glasses, and peer beneath them. Then I'm more or less on map memory for the next 100 metres.

But I want to ask about the stream. The pre-event info states: "The main river (Grace Dieu Brook) through part of the event area has deep pools. These are not always visible in the dark. Please do not be tempted to wade through the river. Use only the bridges." And on the start line we were shown a notice that said, among other things, that we were not to cross the stream except by the bridges. (I'm not sure if that was the exact wording.)

Now the effect of all this information didn't sink in (!) until I got to a stream, which I realised must be the one they were referring to. I think I was at the deep, wide ford NE of control 170. I decided not to wade across so changed my route choice and ended up wasting 5 minutes faffing about. In hindsight I realise (I think I'm right) that I should've just crossed at the ford. The stream is not marked out of bounds or uncrossable, and the bridges are not marked as crossing points. Lots of people crossed at the narrow, shallow ford SW of control 215.

If I'm right, then event officials need to be much clearer about what is and isn't out of bounds (i.e. by actually showing it on the map), especially at a major event, where it would obviously make a big difference whether a competitor decides to cross a stream or not.

[SteveE]

The issue of the stream was discussed between the event officials a number of times and some early versions of the courses had controls moved to the east side to prevent most competitors from needing to consider their crossing points or method of crossing.

There are indeed a couple of very shallow crossing points/fords, to the north of 170, north west of 195 and also to the west of 226. These are marked on the map by the location of footpaths clearly passing through the stream at those points. However there are also many other parts of the stream which are unsuitable to cross not only at night when visibility is limited and with torchlight you cant see the bottom, but are also unsuitable during daylight. So a blanket 'yes the stream is ok to cross' isn't very good for competitors without local knowledge and is unsafe during hours of darkness.

Making any feature or area OOB is only going to be effective if you can police that aspect of the course to ensure competitors don't disregard the markings and gain an advantage. Due to the length of the stream and the fact that is was dark, there was little prospect of enforcing any OOB or uncrossable boundary. Therefore an advisory notice was place in the event details and start lanes to inform everyone of the nature of the stream and competitors were left to cross at their own risk, just as some may cross high fences when others would not.

Courses 1 and 2 were planned with multiple route choices to cross without entering the water, eg over the viaduct, to the north near the old priory or south to the bridge. They were also positioned so that any competitors choosing to cross the stream would also do so at its shallowest point, even during wet weather.

[Adrian]

I thought I might be DQ'd if I waded the stream, so afterwards I felt misled.