British middle and Sprint start times

[graeme]

Appendix L is only for punters. Elites like following each other so they all start as close together as possible.

[Gross]

the best runners are seeded, wouldn't you expect to see the top M21s spread uniformly across the start times?

Ahhh.... not a lot to say really:)

[distracted]

Looks like there might be a bit of snow up there today! Might see some orienteers on the Warwick Uni webcam later:

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/webcam

[IanD]

So what did people think of the sprint event then?

The qualifier seemed slightly easy, and I got caught out with a couple of early controls in the final. I thought my courses were well-planned, making the best of the area.

I was very disappointed with the quality of the control unit assembly. Lots of them seemed to have fallen apart, with the thing to be punched lying on the ground, sometimes a metre or so from the flag. It will be interesting to see the officials comments.

I'd also have preferred less delay between the qualifiers and the final, more than five hours between my two races!

Despite my two criticisms, an enjoyable day. I look forward to having a real championship for us veterans next year. Many thanks to the organisers, planners, etc.

[Scott]

Indeed, a very fun day out and made a very nice contrast with the JK sprint: Guildford was tricky-technical but Warwick was more fast-and-furious (although this didn't make it any easier - because I was running a lot faster I seemed to make many more ridiculous mistakes). And the weather, in the end, was about perfect .

By the way, does anybody know the story behind Aislinn Austin and Rachel Elder running in the A final despite not qualifying from their heats? There were various theories flying around on the day, though I guess (hope) the truth will come out in the officials' comments. I'm intrigued to know what the reasoning was, particularly as they still seem to have picked up UK Cup points.

[distracted]

By the way, does anybody know the story behind Aislinn Austin and Rachel Elder running in the A final despite not qualifying from their heats?

Something to do with a mix-up of maps at the start of the qualifier I think - the runners didn't marry up properly with the relevant maps. Seems they both twigged and went back to start to get the right map. Splitsbrowser does show a rather long first split for both...

[Scott]

In that case I could have understood them being allowed to return to the start and restart their run a couple of minutes later with the correct maps, but it's surely not grounds for reinstatement/altering the results:

7.2.8 It is the responsibility of the competitor to check that they receive the correct map when premarked maps are used.

I seem to recall that the map boxes (map plastic wallet things?) were particularly clearly marked with the course name.

[andy]

The qualifier seemed slightly easy

I beg to differ! I got caught out big time in the small forested section, lost nearly a minute trying to work out what I was doing which meant I missed out on the B final (by about 5 seconds in the end)

The final map/course was ace, really enjoyed it and it was my first clean run of the weekend!
Only gripe I had was that my start times changed at some point. On the list in the hall it was 15:04 and on the one at the start lane it was 15:00, so I arrived just as I was meant to be starting. I think this was something to do with the fact I drew on time with someone else in the qualifier and was switched with them? I certainly heard this theory from somewhere. All was well though as I was given the time from when I punched the start, so the time was accurate.

[Scott]

Only gripe I had was that my start times changed at some point. On the list in the hall it was 15:04 and on the one at the start lane it was 15:00, so I arrived just as I was meant to be starting. I think this was something to do with the fact I drew on time with someone else in the qualifier and was switched with them?

Yes, the same thing happened to myself and Axel Blomquist - the list in that hall said me at 14.13 and him at 14.17 but the one in the start lane had us the other way round - and we too had run exactly the same time in our heat. Guess there must be a bug in the software...

[Adventure Racer]

All was well though as I was given the time from when I punched the start, so the time was accurate.

Ah, presumably that would explain your time on the results posted in the hall!

I'd be tempted to agree about the heats not being that easy, having also failed to qualify for B when I should have - but then I only lost ~20s in the woods, and the rest of my time loss (over a minute just on my worst 3 controls) was all down to my own stupidity. I did at least finally have one good run over the weekend though

[Laura]

my start time also changed at the last minute too. i was very lucky to have been standing near the boxes when they called my name. i spoke to the officials and apparently if you draw with someone (or two people in my case) in the heats the computer randomly generates and order for you the two (or three) of you to start in final. when they had a problem with the start times the list was reprinted and our start times were re-randomised. probably a problem that won't come up too often but worth noting for next time just in case!

[andy]

Ah, presumably that would explain your time on the results posted in the hall!

aye, it was
Almost had Scotia convinced I ran faster than him

[marcus_weatherburn]

mee too!!! I drew with someone in the qualifier and therefore my start was changed to 4minutes before I was due to run. I didnt make it on time as one start list said i was 14.26 whereas the one the organisers had at the actual start said i was ment to be off at 14.22. So apparently i took 4.40 to the first control. haha. Anyway they soon realised when I told them at download and were more than happy to change my result. Thanks alot

[Harley]

By the way, does anybody know the story behind Aislinn Austin .... running in the A final despite not qualifying from their heats?

Something to do with a mix-up of maps at the start of the qualifier I think - the runners didn't marry up properly with the relevant maps. Seems they both twigged and went back to start to get the right map. Splitsbrowser does show a rather long first split for both...

Er... not long enough to warrant getting into the final though. An interesting decision.

[RS]

A very enjoyable weekend apart from (dare I say it ) EMIT. Great course planning on both days but an unenviable workload for the download team which might have been eased by using SI.