Cold Ash Mapclip, from Routegadget
The British Long Champs are next Saturday 25th March, in rolling mixed woodland of Southern England at Cold Ash in Berkshire, as used for the JK2019 Long Race.
There's a good entry and the men's race in particular looks very competitive. A few though are saving their powder for two weeks later in the rockier terrain of the Lake District, when it's GB selection races.
Courses at the British are much the same length as in 2019: W21E has 12.2km, 285m climb, compared to 12.1km + 340m, M21E has 17.8km + 480m compared to 17.8km + 500m. This could be the last British with such a short winning time on the women's, and such a long winning time on the men's.
Routegadget for the last big race at Cold Ash.
The British Relays are the following day at Hambleden.
British Championships 2023 - Final Details and Start Times
Winning Times
The consideration is that, at the top level of the sport, a 70-75 minute race is different to a 90-95 minute race. There are both physical and mental differences, and these affect what is appropriate training.
For all the age class races the target times are shorter - On The Red Line salutes the older athletes who choose to run elite rather than their age class!
In 2022, after some years of consultation, the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) agreed that men and women should run equal times in the long distance orienteering format. Some would say this was the last example of inequality in the sport. So from 2024 onwards IOF High-Level Event (HLE) long distance races will have equal expected "target" winning times of 90 minutes. "Target" means the average of the first three.
- • 2023, IOF HLE Women’s Long distance races have 82-minutes target time, men 90 minutes.
- • 2024, IOF HLE Long distance races have 90 minutes target time for women and men.
British Champs
This year the courses are planned for winning times of 75 minutes for women and 95 minutes for men. (Of course what actually happens depends on who runs and how well they do.)
On the similar lengths in 2019 Chris Smithard won the M21E race in 95 minutes, and Cecilie Andersen was 2nd on W21E in 76 minutes. Both are in the startlist for this year.
It may be appropriate for the lengths to change for future championships inline with IOF. That is the women's gets longer and the men's shorter. Next year's champs are in the north-east.
Incidentally the JK Long Races on Easter Sunday will have lengths in line with the IOF guidelines for 2023.
Later Starters
Startlists - British Orienteering Champs.
W21E and M21E are seeded so that the best runners according to the UK National Rankings start at the end (final starter 13:30).
It is very likely there will be first-time winners of both the open class trophies.
Final 10 starters on W21E (12.2km, 285m climb) - 7 from Scottish clubs
- Julie Emmerson (Octavian Droobers) - Julie was 3rd in the 2021 British Champs but has run only 1 ranking list race since then (the New Forest race that was the SHI.)
- Marie Eades (Edinburgh University)
- Alison O'Neil (Edinburgh Southern)
- Emma Wilson (Clyde)
- Claire Ward (Interlopers)
- Eilidh Campbell (MAROC)
- Chloe Potter (South Yorkshire) - who was champion in 2021
- Niamh Hunter (Edinburgh University)
- Fiona Bunn (Edinburgh University)
- Cecilie Andersen (Bristol)
Marie, Eilidh, Chloe and Niamh are GB Development Squad athletes. Fiona and Cecilie are GB Performance Squad athletes. In addition it is terrain where both are strong, so we make them favourites.
Final 10 starters on M21E (17.8km, 480m climb) - 5 from Scottish clubs
- Thomas Wilson (Clyde)
- Joshua Dudley (MAROC)
- Peter Taylor-Bray (Manchester & District) - 3rd in M21E at Cold Ash in 2019
- Alasdair Pedley (Auld Reekie) - 2nd in M20E at Cold Ash in 2019, and one of two previous champions running M21E this year
- Matthew Gooch (Edinburgh University) - M18E at Cold Ash in 2019
- Chris Smithard (Forth Valley) - 1st in M21E at Cold Ash in 2019
- Will Gardner (Octavian Droobers) - 2nd in M21E at Cold Ash in 2019
- Joe Woodley (Lakeland)
- Nathan Lawson (Octavian Droobers)
- Jonathan Crickmore (South Yorkshire)
On The Red Line We see this race as quite open.
Frontrunner of these last ten men starters in the current World Rankings is Joshua Dudley (6281) ahead of Peter Taylor-Bray (6237) and Nathan Lawson (6038) heading a reasonably close group of Matthew Gooch, Joe Woodley, Thomas Wilson, Chris Smithard and Alasdair Pedley. Neither Jonathan Crickmore nor Will Gardner has the necessary five counting scores.
Northern Champs 26th February Results
Lakes Spring Middle 4th March Results
Twitter Poll
Which club will the M21E winner come from? (It ran Monday - Wednesday before the race.) Twitter polls are anonymous, and of course, it could be votes are influenced by wish as much as by evaluation.
- A North-West Club (Joe, Peter) - 0 votes
- None of the others (Jonathan) - 1 vote
- Octavian Droobers (Nathan, Will) - 5 votes
- A Scottish one (Chris, Matthew, Alastair, Joshua, Thomas) - 12 votes