The Year Ahead

WorldCup British WOC

Matt Image: Matt Speake, photo by Karl Orud for WOC 2019 Norway

It is a quiet time for the international orienteering calendar. In Britain we must wait until next year for major events (except for one - the Southern Championships are on November 25th - with On The Red Line staff involved.)

So we look ahead to next year's calendar. The World Championships (WOC) are just the forest disciplines, as the new way of alternating forest and sprint begins. They are in Norway, so will be different from recent experience in Baltic countries. It is not a year for the biennial European Championships. And as in 2018 there are plenty of athletes aiming for the selections for World Cup Round 1 and the World Champs.

Next Year's World Cup Programme

7th-11th June World Cup Round 1, Finland, Middle/Chase/SprintRelay (6 women, 6 men for the middle.)

12th - 17th August World Championships, Norway, Middle Qualifier+Final, Long, Relay (3 women, 3 men for the middle, 2 women, 2 men for the long, 1 women's, 1 men's relay team.)

26th -29th September World Cup Round 3, Switzerland

25th - 29th October World Cup Round 4, China

Full International Calendar

Selection

There are two main announcement dates for the British teams for the World Cup programme. For the full story on selection please check the British Orienteering Website (GB Team tab - Selection.)

1) Post JK. April 2019
  • Final selection made for the World Cup 1 in Finland
  • Pre-Selection for WOC in Norway
2) Post WOC Test Races. July 2019
  • Final selection made for WOC in Norway
  • Selection for World Cup 3 Switzerland
  • Selection for World Cup 4 China
  • Selection for Euromeeting (if appropriate)

The Big Relays

Domestic Championships 2019

  • 23rd February British Nights - Scotland
  • 10th March Northern Champs - Yorkshire
  • 31st March Southern Champs - Forest of Dean
  • 19th-22nd April JK - South Central. The M/W21E sprint and middle races are World Ranking.
  • 4th May British Sprint Relays (perhaps an On The Red Line prize for all teams running with lightsabers?)
  • 5th May British (Classic Distance) Champs - Yorkshire
  • 6th May British Relays - Leeds
  • 25th May Scottish Champs - Dumfries and Galloway
  • 26th May Midland Champs - Shropshire
  • 14th September British Sprints - Loughborough
  • 15th September British Middle Distance Champs - Derbyshire

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Scottish 6-Days

s6dlogo

The Scottish 6-Days is a very popular orienteering holiday week, which includes M21E and W21E classes. This year the event centre is in Crieff, a little west of Perth. Of particular interest to the top open class runners there are two World Ranking Events in the week, These come just before the World Championships in Norway.

Day 3 (Dundurn & Cnoc a'Mhaidaidh) includes a World Ranking Middle Distance Race.

Day 5 (Craig a Barns) includes a World Ranking Long Distance.

British runners in World Ranking Top 100 - Forest (29th November 2018)

The World Ranking Lists are not the full story, they are just one indicator, and something to create a bit of interest. Except that is that they influence start order - the higher ranked an athlete the better a start position they tend to get.

The calculations change on 1st January 2019. The change will probably not cause big shifts in the resulting tables. An athlete's score is now the sum of best five scores over two years, rather than four over eighteen months. Also the weightings for different races have been adjusted. The number of races, and especially races with the higher weightings, makes a big difference. See an earlier article about ranking lists.

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