Preparing for a restart.

[yted]

Some thoughts below... we need lots of brainstorming!

1. Our sport has lots of advantages:
• Entry and payment can be online;
• Numbers can be limited to safe levels;
• It’s a time trial not a race;
• People run as individuals;
• Start boxes can be 4mx4m with instructions to stand in the centre;
• Start times can be spread so as to minimise anyone being close to anyone else during the competition;
• In some areas controls could be left out so that those free on Mondays could compete then;
• Runners can be told not to use a control until it is clear of people and to move away from the control as soon as they have dibbed;
• We can avoid using existing gates by building styles say 5m away from them;
• Courses can be planned to avoid high-risk areas;
• Download can be at the end of a long cable (probably even cable-free).

2. We need to persuade the various authorities that the sport is pretty safe already and can be made safer. In particular:
• The government, Sport UK (and other national/regional bodies), Public Health officials, the Police, Local Authorities;
• Landowners;

3. For forest events, the main problems may be:
• Other users of the area especially near gates/stiles and on narrow paths;
• Persuading landowners that car parks can be organised safely.

4. For urban events it’s much more difficult. The best urban terrain often has many narrow alleys, tunnels, bridges, gates, shops and non-orienteers meaning physical isolation is pretty impossible. Car parks will also be a problem. University campuses and military areas at quiet times may be the only solution for a year or two.

5. Orienteers spend a lot of money at major events and clearly this will help to achieve permissions as some areas which might be wary of the public health risks will want the customers. Our job is to reduce the public health risks to a minimum and persuade people that we have done so and to act responsibly once the sport restarts so that we become know for keeping a gate clear until the walkers have passed through rather than dashing to get there before them.

What we need is a national plan which clubs can adapt/add to. We probably also need some new rules even if they are temporary.

[Big Jon]

Don't forget that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate rules (and governments)... so we may potentially have 4 sets of rules.

[Arnold]

All great thoughts and definitely what we need to be working on.

But surely it’s BOF’s role to be formulating this strategy so as to get it approved by government or whoever. One hopes they’ve already been doing this. Does anyone know?

[Scott]

The British Orienteering staff have been working hard to put together a strategy for restarting orienteering. It's currently with the Board for review, and the plan is to put an initial draft out to clubs and associations for consultation shortly.

It's necessarily a little speculative at the moment, as we don't know what form any relaxation of the current guidelines will take, but the idea is that it'll become a living document that will evolve as the guidelines from the various governments change.

[Arnold]

Thanks Scott. The most interesting conclusion from yted's points for me is that forest o will start a lot sooner than urban o - pretty obvious I guess, but I hadn't thought of it that way. Traditionalists will no doubt rejoice

[SeanC]

What might be interesting is that we might all have to get used to doing things that are less convenient for us, but make it easier to organise events. Ie:

- No entry on the day. Online entry only, perhaps with a softer deadline of a couple of days before the event.
- No SI Card hire. Bring your own, or get a long term hire through your orienteering club.
- Pre-allocate start time. No start time changes - make your start time or start late.
- Do we really need a start official? Clearly laid out boxes and a generously sized clock should do the job.

etc.

[Arnold]

Scott, do you know how quickly BOF will get out their guidelines?

I spoke to a friend in Austria where the lockdown ends on 30/4 and on 1/5 they are putting on their first training event, suitably socially distanced (self start, map pickup, finish and download with an official in earshot in case of any issues.)

What you don’t want is weeks of debate when we could be getting on with low key ‘training’ events. Putting on a socially distanced basic O race really shouldn’t be rocket science (permissions permitting!)

[Scott]

I believe the plan is to get something out for consultation in the very near future. The idea is to have those discussions and get feedback from clubs and associations now, so that we can be ready for a suitably low-key restart once the government guidance allows.

In doing this, we're having to make some big assumptions about what the new government guidance might be. While we should obviously do as much preparatory work as we can, whatever we come up with now will need to be adapted to whatever the new guidance actually says - and, as Jon says above, may need to be tailored to any differences across the five different governments.

It seems likely that we have a while to go yet before the UK eases restrictions in the same way that Austria intends to. For comparison, the numbers over the last week are 32,000+ confirmed new infections and 4,300+ deaths in the UK vs. 476 new infections and 78 deaths in Austria.

[SJC]

Putting on a socially distanced basic O race really shouldn’t be rocket science (permissions permitting!)

Permissions may turn out to be a bigger problem than we might think. Whilst social distancing is still in place would any landowner want to be seen to be encouraging groups of people to gather ?

Unfortunately I can also see the UK following France's lead - which if I understand correctly has banned all sporting events, including behind closed doors, until September.

[ricardito]

[quote=BBC News"]

Sports should return from the "bottom-up not the top-down" when the coronavirus lockdown lifts, according to a public health adviser to the World Health Organisation.

Mentions Parkrun as a possible "early starter", which I would have thought at least as problematic as orienteering in terms of numbers and proximity...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/52465031

[Karen]

Following up from SJC's concerns about permissions, I think we do need to be aware of public perception of the sport.

In rural areas, there is already resentment about people from outside the locality coming to walk, cycle, picnic etc. And farmers feel particularly vulnerable with visitors touching gates, stiles etc. A lot of these areas are very dependent on tourism, and are taking a big financial hit. It seems unreasonable to them that they are trying their best to maintain lockdown but it could all be a waste of time if "incomers" bring the virus to their community. I don't want to start a disscussion about whether their fears are justified, it is what it is.
Any move to bring a number of folks to an event too soon might not improve our reputation.

Sorry to be such a pessimist, just my opinion.

[maprun]

Putting on a socially distanced basic O race really shouldn’t be rocket science (permissions permitting!)

Unfortunately I can also see the UK following France's lead - which if I understand correctly has banned all sporting events, including behind closed doors, until September.

The French announcement concerned major sporting events only, but he following was also said: “It will be possible, on sunny days, to practice an individual sporting activity outdoors, obviously respecting the rules of social distancing....It will not be possible, neither to practice sport in covered places, nor team or contact sports.”

So apart from major events, it looks as though their approach might depend on the sporting activity and whether it is in indoors.

[The mole]

Not really wishing to add to the doom and gloom, but in terms of setting expectations our fixtures secretary has received the following e-mail from one of the local councils we deal with.

Subject: Update on park and town centre events
Dear all,
Following my previous email on 18 March, I wanted to be clear about the current situation regarding events on Council land (which includes parks, open spaces and town centres).
The guidelines allow parks to be used for individual exercise and dog-walking purposes, as long as social distancing is observed - both in parks and our town centres.
The guidelines are likely to continue in some form for the foreseeable future.
Therefore the Council’s position is that any events planned for 2020, and possibly into early 2021, will not be able to go ahead.
We advise organisers not to proceed any further with plans for events in this time period.
Kind regards

If this indicates the way other local councils are thinking it is not good news for restarting with local events.

[SeanC]

Interesting.

I know this is counter to how orienteering (used to) works, but it might be worth considering using our best areas for local events, at least for 2020 and 2021. My reasoning is that our best areas are more likely to be private estates with no public access aside from public footpaths, so we only need to worry about social distancing from other orienteers.

The other advantage to using good areas for local events is that the quality of the orienteering will make up to some extent for the lack of social interaction with other orienteers. These new local events are going to seem quite flat if you turn up on your own or with family, run, don't talk to anyone and go home alone. Local events are good for club chat, comparing routes etc which makes up for the sometimes dodgy terrain. So lets replace the dodgy terrain with good terrain.

Something our orienteering committees could do therefore is temporarily abandon embargos. We will need to be more flexible in the next few months or years, so let's give ourselves some flexibility.

Another thought I had was that, at least for local events, we could make more use of video conferencing apps like Zoom we're all getting used to for say online prize giving. This might make up for the lack of sociability somewhat, and give a chance for safe chat after the event. Zoom could also be used for a briefing before the event.

[Gross]

Zoom could also be used for a briefing before the event.

And, therefore, put non users at a disadvantage?