Proper Sprint Races

[Adventure Racer]

Is it appropriate to also question whether we should have more proper sprint races, or should I start another thread? (if so, please split this off, mods)

Apart from the preparation for our internationals, personally I really enjoyed the British champs and would like to do more. Would also presumably be feasible to hold these at some venues in the British summer when many normal orienteering areas are horrible grotty places.

[Oldman]

I agree. Urban or near town sprints are also an ideal way to promote orienteering to the great unwashed. As well as offring real racing for keen orienteers, they could be used to introduce many to the sport, and offer youngsters a chance to try it in an easily accessible place.

It would need to be a series in the same town or area to be effective, though.

[Paul T]

Et voila!

The original aim was to encourage parents and other club members to come along and get involved in coaching. We tried this once last Autumn - it worked well so we will try some more. Like most clubs, we are not short of suitable venues for this though we will have to wire down some contriols .

Related topic - has anyone experience of converting a normal (ISOM2000) map to sprint (ISSOM2005) standard ? Haven't tried - I'm just being lazy.

[graeme]

convert to ISSOM... I have done it, (but I wouldn't claim to have done it well).

You can do this by opening the map as an ISSOM one, which brings in the ISSOM symbol set, then copying in the existing map, which brings in the ISOM symbols. Then select each object and change the symbol. Save the map. Finally delete the ISOM symbols to ensure you aren't tempted to reuse them, returning to the saved map when you find you've forgotten to convert something.

You have to decide about crossibility, and the grades of track, and I haven't figured how to do the whole business of paved areas and edges.

Watch out for colours though - when I did this I got the green screen over the path symbol. One of the controls ended up 50m inside a block of fight and the old red pen had to come out (oops).

Is it worth it? Definitely! ISSOM is much better for anything vaguely urban.

[Domhnull Mor]

The idea of having a series of sprint races has been a wee plan of mine for several years ever since I first ran GMOK's spring series in Göteborg in 1999. Like Oldman says, it is a good way to promote the sport to Joe public. A few years ago, after hurriedly planning a New Year event on a hand drawn map after an overnight snowfall knocked out the original (forest based) event, I suggested that we should map as many as possible of the villages in Badenoch and Strathspey as this would be an ideal location for a series of races. This project is currently in progress (although I can't confirm whether the ISSOM2005 standard has been used). Some of you will already have run on the Glen Gynack map above Kingussie. Although at a different scale, this will connect to a sprint map of the village giving even more possibilities for courses.

Here in Luleå, due to the long winter we have a "spring" sprint series to get us out even before the snow has melted from the streets and long before the snow has left the forests. In fact, our last race this spring was 2 weeks after the 10-mila. Probably explains why we have so many "sprint specialists" up here. This weekend we are hosting the Norrlands Mästerskap with a sprint race on a new map in the old church town. Should be good.

[Nails]

Yep i've converted many maps to ISSOM from ISOM, and as graeme says its reasonably straightforward. There are 3 things to look out for:

As graeme mentioned -Dark green is above the path edge/paved area colours so will need some work so as not to obscure the new paths.

Also as graeme said -Edges (sometimes of different lineweight) need to be applied to edges of paved areas -and also vegetation (if for example there is a curb round a planted bed)

Also -Buildings in ISSOM are made up of two symbols -an edge and a hatch. When you convert the black ISOM building symbol to the ISSOM Building edge symbol the edge line will overlap slightly and therefore the new building will be bigger. In a simple park this might not matter, but where space is confined the ISSOM building edge wiln need to be dragged inwards.


In my opinion any event advertising itself as a sprint race should use an ISSOM map. Since the ISOM symbol set was introduced, we expect to go to middle distance or classic races and run on a map with a standard set of symbols -so why not sprint? The small amount of work (i'm talking 1-3hours on the computer and a quick walk around checking crossable and uncrossable walls/adding distinct trees etc) needed to change a average park map to sprint symbols is nothing.

From the view of begginers to the sport i also beleive that the ISSOM set is very clear and easy to interpret, so using ISSOM at small local/intro/park events is a must. Most people if they decide to then go an do a traditional event will be able to understand the differences (and to be perfectly honest the only slightly different symbols are walls and fences!)

[Pippa]

I agree that putting on sprint races is a good way to attract people to the sport - shorter distances, 'easier'(?!) navigation.

However, I'm not sure that the whole cross-section of UK orienteers would necessarily travel far to participate in a sprint race in the middle of our domestic season, e.g. if there's a decent badge event (or whatever it's called) down the road. I imagine there is still resistance to the concept from older orienteers who feel that the concept of sprinting is not for them.

But definitely during the summer it is an ideal opportunity to widen participation. I raced in the TVOC summer series whilst at Oxford and it was invaluable. I discovered loads of areas I'd never otherwise have visited as they are too small for longer events, perfect to go back to for an evening's training, and generally great courses. The highlight always being how many men I could beat - easily measurable due to mass start loop races. These weren't billed as 'sprint' races, but the skills I used are as close to those in sprint races as anything, and have served me well.

As for maps - if you do put on a sprint race rather than a normal, short, summer series race, then it is definitely worth producing a sprint spec. map. They are subtly different, and are very well suited to the style of navigation that you will use in a sprint, especially in urban/park areas. You don't realise how good they are until you try to do a sprint race on a poor- non-sprint map...

While GB seem to be producing good sprint orienteers, then why don't we run with it and attract people through this route. I'm just a bit worried about some of those CLOK juniors beating me...

That's not to say I don't like long classic races too - but that's another thread!
Pippa

[Oldman]

I agree that putting on sprint races is a good way to attract people to the sport - shorter distances, 'easier'(?!) navigation.

However, I'm not sure that the whole cross-section of UK orienteers would necessarily travel far to participate in a sprint race in the middle of our domestic season, e.g. if there's a decent badge event (or whatever it's called) down the road. I imagine there is still resistance to the concept from older orienteers who feel that the concept of sprinting is not for them.

Pippa

Exactly, Pippa! We need to sell this new type of orienteering to a new set of orienteers, perhaps even getting volunteers from the older ones may be difficult - but count me in!

[Paul T]

Thanks for the help on conversion - not a big task and on the suburban park map that I tried, ISSOM does seem clearer.
One other feature is that gates seem to be rotated through 90deg when changing symbols, unless I've been very unlucky.
Also, I've not found a way to work out if a symbol is still used before deleting it. Symbol - Select - Unused comes up with many more symbols than I think it should, unless there really are some uncrossable crags in this park

[johnloguk]

We do tend to keep coming back to this strange reluctance of the majority of orienteers to try anything other than straight forward cross-country orienteering. It has always baffled me. If you are brave enough to put on a score event, or sprint race, short race, or God forbid a relay, you can be sure of a poor turn-out, really infuriating. Start talking about "Norwegian", map memory, windows, corridors etc and most orienteers disappear rapidly!

Like all these other variations Sprint Racing is a brilliant form of orienteering, using different skills, giving different sorts of enjoyment. It also clearly suits different people and as part of this rich tapaestry that is orienteering it should be encouraged. We also seem to be pretty good at it as a nation.

So yes, I'd love to see more Sprint leagues/series and will be encouraging my club to do more. And maybe it is time to stop trying to convert existing orienteers and just aim for a new market, we need new blood in orienteering and this is a wonderful way of attracting it. Hopefully a lot of the people who start orienteering through sprint races will move on and also find pleasure out in the big forests.

[sgb]

I think some of the 'alternative' types of events are amazing - this year's BRC and SOS relays, for instance, were great events of completely different sizes. The TVOC Summer Series has been mentioned already and tends to see a large local turnout.

One important factor seems to be the personal recommendation: if somebody's friend tells him (or her) that an event can be as fun as a standard Sunday morning Badge event, then he (or she) seems more likely to consider attending. OUOC has a City Race coming up in November which will provide competitors a chance to race within the centre of the country's oldest university... we're looking forward to seeing you (and your friends) there

[johnloguk]

Having thoroughly enjoyed York back in May I certainly hope to be able to run the Oxford City Race, it sounds excellent. And following SGB's example I must take another opportunity to mercilessly plug the Lincolnshire Bomber Weekend in January, which we hope will also provide a wonderfully varied and fun couple of days orienteering. Relays on the saturday followed by the choice of a Park Race and 20km Long-O on the sunday. With the last 4km or so of the Long-O being on the Park Race map it should give the best of both worlds. Some of our historic cities are surely a match for the Park Race Tour, but then I suspect that is another thread

[Freefall]

NATO has been running an annual Sprint Race in Morpeth's Carlisle Park for 5 years now (the week after Easter to co-incide with the Morpeth Gathering). Great event but numbers have been poor. The first time we ran it was also the first time we had used SportIdent in the North East. I was in charge that day and had nightmares about the units not waking up and how to work the OE software. We had also committed to the Mayor giving prizes shortly after the last runner was expected in so no pressure there then! There was a slight fudge factor introduced because a number of contestants didn't use the punching start. We guessed their times to the first control (20-45 seconds depending on ability). That's precision for you.

[Oldman]

But what we need to attract newcomers is not a one-off or even an annual race, but a series!

i.e. say four events in a week, or one a week for a month, at the very least.

This would need backed by an effective publicity campaign.

[redkite]

to attract newcomers would also need to be local