FCC Final at World Cup Rd 1.

[lilywhite]

the best little chipmunk orienteer in the world

Is that aimed at me? Well, I suppose if I never become World Champion, it's something to fall back on.

[ruth]

there won't be a sprint in the FCC because there isn't a sprint at JWOC to answer that question.

I think they might be bringing a sprint race into JWOC for Australia 2007 (?) so maybe juniors need more opportunities to practice sprints over the next few years than we've got at the moment?

[rocky]

sure they were going to bring one in for estonia, but it wouldnt fit in the week.... so it was going to be switzerland. but it seems not....

[Dan]

sprint is probably going to be introduced at JWOC in Lithuania, so maybe sprint races should be being incorporated into FCC already, you cant get really good at sprint races in one year.

[bendover]

agreed, you've definitely got to get the practice in to nail the sprint races... i'd be up for more sprint races - how cool would a weekend of sprint races be? some kind of knock out formula done in rounds, but worked so that everyone gets to run the same amount of races. maybe an A,B, and C final like at JWOC.

3 races on the saturday. 15-20 min winning time for each. to work out qualifiers for the next days finals either:

a) a points system with the best 2 out of 3 races to count
b) all 3 races to count, total time.

On the sunday: top 20 go into an A-Final that consists of two races; start times are drawn from the hat to level the playing field again, but have it as a chasing sprint format. The other runners have the same format but in the B/C final.

any thoughts? could be logisitically tricky of course; where could it be held? you could have the saturday in one town (eg sheffield) and the sunday in a different town (eg leeds).

ben

[awk]

there won't be a sprint in the FCC because there isn't a sprint at JWOC to answer that question.

It would be rather sad if the FCC Final stooped to being limited by what goes on in JWOC or any other race - I'm sure it hasn't. After all, it was introduced to break a few moulds, and was never intended to get stuck in a rut. When it was introduced 'Short' races (now Medium), were still very new, and very, very few (especially for juniors), which is why one was included. What goes around......

[David May]

Dan said:

sprint is probably going to be introduced at JWOC in Lithuania

Yes, the feeling amongst JWOC team leaders is that a Sprint race should be introduced into the programme, the main question being just what the programme should look like. An IOF proposal will be put to team leaders in Switzerland next year for discussion.

The Swiss programme has been set in stone for some time so there is only room for an informal Sprint race to be offered, I understand, so the first time an official Sprint race will be included in JWOC could well be in 2006 (Lithuania).

Will Gross be controlling?!

[mharky]

Ahem...

surely orienteering is not all about the ELITE...

no, quite right.... but the world cups are.

It would be a good idea to have some sprint races included in the FCC programme. You can win the UK cup without having to run a classic race.
Im sure 1 sprint, 3 middle, 4 "long" races would be fun.

Britain does have a lack of sprint races, and relays compared to the likes of sweden. relays all over the place. amazing

[Simon]

Britain does have a lack of sprint races, and relays compared to the likes of sweden. relays all over the place. amazing

I always get the impression that relay events are not taken at all seriously. With the exception of the few top events (that go into the relay league) most other relay events seem to be taken on the level of informal events. I know some areas are trying to change that (c.f. relay league in SWOA), but such events are still not well attended. Possibly this is a discussion for another thread though

[Guest]

Will Gross be controlling?!

Is that an offer

[Kitch]

would 5 sprint races in one weekend kill people's ability to 'sprint' ?

maybe a sprint series is needed ?
but how do you fit one in ?
put a sprint race on a Saturday before a long race Sunday ?
but there are often already middle races on the Saturdays
So, sprint, then middle on a Saturday ?
but how many people will want to do both ?
Mat doesn't

So there you have the problem
race formats are increasing
but people don't want to specialise, people want to do them all.
Thats not going to work.
The Elite are only just realising after years that you have to specialise.

But if you do specialise you have to miss other races.
Is it worth organising sprint races if only a few do them ?

At the moment the attendance at middle races remains low, though it is rising.
Sprint races will attract even fewer so I think they are likely to remain an occasional nice to have in respect of mainstream orienteering events for some time.
The Surrey 5-O is a rare opportunity

The way forward is to organise your own.
organise a regional series with other enthusiasts.
The good thing about sprint is that it can be easily organised on an informal basis.

It is up to you to then take these races seriously, so that come BEOC or whatever you are the experienced, prepared, on form sprint racer.

And eventually there will be more sprint formats at maijor races - it will take time though.

What I have just described is what happened with Middle - from about 1990 Dickie Jones began some middle races in Scotland etc.
Then Graham Mac ran a pre SOL series for a few years.

you have to work at it

[harry]

if i was aiming for sprint i would be prepared to sacrifice other races for sprint races. it's not just in the uk it's a problem. marten's always moaning about the lack of sprint races in finland but he runs a lot of mock sprint races in training instead. it's quite easy to train for sprint, especially in here glasgow where there are 15 pretty good parks mapped. if there were more good sprint areas mapped maybe there would be more sprint races. clubs tend to organise races on the basis of the areas they have got.

anyway there is going to be a quality sprint race sometime in feb (?) as part of a clyde weekend of races. and i think it's supposed to be the susf sprint champs. so mat.. if shuoc et al. want to send a team to challenge the scottish unis over sprint distance then bring it on! & there was talk of a sprint at busa as well.

[Supersaint]

there was actually a yokrshire sprint series held this summer, each club in the region put on one race each (EBOR, AIRE, CLARO, EPOC, SYO), but as has been said here, many of these are informal affairs, although i don't think the series was that well advertised. even so, i made an effort to attend as many as i could, did 3 of them and they were really good fun, none were held on sunday's so it didn't mean that you couldn't go to any more typical o-races.
things like this are not that difficult to organise, just a little bit of co-operation between clubs in each region and that's about 5-6 sprint races if each club organises one. and if held on saturday's they are a great warmup to the 'main' event on the sunday.

[Becks]

I've heard nothing but praise for the Yorkshire series. TVOC also hold a summer series, which is a three loop race. Although technically the distance mackes it a middle race, the head to head atmosphere and the three short loops make it seem much more like a sprint. Some of these events have been some of my favourite competitions over the last couple of years, and I can't recommend them enough!