Start times

[Homer]

If you like that sort of inflexibility then there are plenty level B national events.

I'm not sure where the flexibility is with 113 start slots in use out of a maximum 120?
I'm surprised that a UKOL race doesn't have to be at Level B.

I note that at Saturday's sprint in Keswick (with similar numbers) the organisers have gone to 30 second start intervals. Hopefully the start officials on Sunday will use common sense and reduce start intervals to whatever is needed to avoid excessive queues building up. Not ideal, but better than standing around in the cold for what could be a very long time. Not to mention the possibility of starts going on well beyond 1230....

[pete.owens]

It is one thing starting off runners at 30s intervals on a local sprint event where people will disappear round a corner after a few seconds and another thing completely on an open fell. It would just turn it into a procession.

[Scott]

The start runs from 1030 to 1230 and there are 113 entries on the Brown course... What's the best time to turn up to avoid a potential 1 hour plus wait

If the start opens at 10:30, experience suggests that many orienteers will have arrived at the start and begun to form a queue sometime before 10:00.

I'm not planning to get to the start before 12:15.

[rf_fozzy]

If the start opens at 10:30, experience suggests that many orienteers will have arrived at the start and begun to form a queue sometime before 10:00.

That's a given! I think I've actually had someone turn up at a start 45mins early at one event I was controlling, and asking when they could start.... Which wasn't at all helpful for the start team and planners who were running a little behind

[miklcct]

Case in point, for the JK Sprint I can only pick EML but would like to do a day trip from London on the train. If I pick L that could potentially be any time between 1pm and 3:30pm, meaning I can't buy a cheaper advance ticket, or have to buy one with a pretty big 'safety margin'.

The international standard is to assign start times centrally, as in the WRE classes in the JK, so we should follow suit as well. In addition, we shouldn't stick blank maps on the start as well as the international standard doesn't do that.

I have bought a cheaper advance ticket for the JK sprint after the start times are allocated.