The 2019 Nokian Tyres World Orienteering Championships (WOC) took place in Østfold, Norway from 13th - 17th August. Østfold is the county of the south-east part of Norway, between Oslo and Sweden. The event centre was the city of Sarpsborg. The Championships were very well organised, and the accompanying spectator races were also well attended.
The nine athletes of the Great Britain Team for the 2019 World Champs. Credits: Matt Speake by Karl Orud, Jo Shepherd by WOC2018 Latvia, Charlotte Watson and Megan Carter-Davies by South London Orienteers (from the "Get up to Speed" videos), others by On The Red Line.
It was a forest only World Championships. All three finals, long, middle and relay, were held from a specially constructed arena at Mørk Golf Club, in the middle of the previously unmapped forest. Long and middle used an arena start, and all courses had an arena passage.
Great Britain took a team of nine athletes, supported by Team Manager Ed Nicholas, Coach Liz Campbell and Physio Jane Ashbrook. Of the nine, four are based in Britain (two of whom have spent several years in Sweden), four in Norway and one in Sweden. All had run at least two World Chanps before.
Full results are in IOF Eventor - WOC2019.
JK2019 Middle Distance Prizewinners, credit: Iain Shepherd
The 2019 took place in central Southern England from April 19th - 22nd.
- Friday was a World Ranking Sprint Race at Aldershot Garrison
- Saturday was a World Ranking Middle Distance Race at Old Windmill Hill
- Sunday was a Long Distance Race at Cold Ash
- Monday was the JK Relays, the biggest UK relays competition, at Minley.
The weather was exceptionally warm and dry, and everything about the competition was very good, except the results service and timing which were not up to it.
(It's late Tuesday evening now, and "All results are now under review and will be published as soon as they are validated.")
Top three in the Women's Overall enjoying the weather, credit: Iain Shepherd
Graham Gristwood runs in at Windmill Hill
Quick runs from top runners coming back from longtime injuries were one of the stories of the day. Graham Gristwood was second in today's men's race, and Cat Taylor won the women's. Neither is able to take on tomorrow's long race though, but we should see them in Monday's relays and in TioMIla next weekend..
The men's race was won by a terrific run from Peter Hodkinson, and third place was taken by Peter Bray.
Second in the women's was Jo Shepherd, and third was Megan Carter-Davies.
Continue reading...
Photo: Kris Jones in last year's World Champs Forest Relay, by Janis Ligats for WOC2018 Latvia.
On The Red Line Comment. Most years the JK Middle is arguably the most competitive domestic race. This is because of the quality of the terrain, map and planning, the quality of the field (and that they are all going 100%) and the timing with regard to selection. This year the men's field has all the top runners from the UK ranking list (Alasdair McLeod, Will Gardner, Peter Hodkinson, Jonny Crickmore) an experienced international based in Norway (Matt Speake) plus a proven world-class international coming back from injury (Graham Gristwood). The Women's field has top runners from the UK ranking list (Megan Carter-Davies, Alice Leake) experienced internationals based in Scandinavia (Jo Shepherd, Jess Halliday, Charlotte Watson) and a proven world-class international coming back from injury (Cat Taylor.) And by the way It's one of three forest races in the UK this year with World Ranking status. As many will know the JK was in South Central England in 2013, again using Cold Ash for the long race, when the overall winners were Matt Speake and Cat Taylor.
British Sprint Championships
Bath University, Saturday 1st September
Photo: The Prizegiving, by Steve Rush
Women (Women Open A Final)
| . | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alice Leake (Airienteers) | 13:51 |
| 2 | Laura Robertson (Edinburgh Southern) | 13:56 |
| 3 | Charlotte Ward (Humberside & Lincolnshire) | 14:03 |
| 4 | Fiona Bunn (Thames Valley, W20) | 15:00 |
| 5 | Cecilie Andersen (Bristol) | 15:34 |
| 6 | Kirstin Maxwell (Roxburgh Rievers) | 15:39 |
Image: section from a previous map
Followers of the GB Orienteers need to have their eyes in more than one place this coming weekend, with World Cup forest races taking place in Norway ( starting on Friday, preview - World Cup Round 3 ) and the British Sprint and the British Middle Distance Championships being hosted by the South West Orienteering Association, Bristol Orienteering Klub and North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club.
Saturday is the sprints, Sunday the middle distance.
Continue reading...The 2018 World Championships took place in Latvia (celebrating 100 years) from 4th - 11th August. The event was based in Riga and Sigulda. The Championships were supported by Nokian Tyres.
This was the last all-disciplines World Championships. Next year it will be the Forest races (Norway), in 2020 the Sprint races (Denmark.)
Britain sent a team of 14 athletes. They achieved one podium place, in the men's relay.
Full results are in IOF Eventor - WOC2018 and results and photographs are also at the Latvia World Champs site. An index of our news reports and a summary of British results follows below.
See also the virtual arena (with links to many GB photos) at Maprunner WOC 2018
Continue reading...
Alasdair McLeod (pictured) and Ralph Street ran the World Champs middle race in Sigulda Latvia today. Ali was 52nd and Ralph was 13th. Ralph improved from being 38th at the first timing point and was less time down on the winner at the end than he was on the then leader at the first timing point.
Kris Jones asked Ralph a few questions after the race.
Continue reading...It was the #WOC2018 middle races today. @Thekrisjones asks @Ralph_Street about his race. pic.twitter.com/0o8BAhKxGY
— On The Red Line (@OnTheRedLineO) 7 August 2018
Megan Carter-Davies recorded the highest British position in today's women's middle distance World Champs race. She was 20th. Cat Taylor was 26th and Charlotte Watson 53rd.
The forest was tough, with mostly low visibility; it was not possible to stay on a bearing because of obstructions, and climbing and crawling needed to be part of an athlete's technique.
Photo: The five GB athletes who will run the Middle races
The World Champs Middle races are on Tuesday 7th.
GB has three women and two men running. Good luck to them. The women's race is first; and a two minute start interval is used.
-
First starter 9:56 UK-time
- 11:14 Charlotte Watson
- 1...
Kris Jones wins Sprint Bronze
Photo: Kris Jones on the run through the arena (On The Red Line)
Photo: GB team; athletes, manager and support staff, Hollie Orr not present (Source: Kirstin Maxwell Twitter)
Photo: Cat Taylor runs through the arena on the spectator passage partway through today's race (credit: On The Red Line).
Cat Taylor came fifth in today's European Championship middle distance race.
Cat Taylor talks with Jessica Tullie after today's race
Continue reading...
Photo: Alan Cherry finishes his race today (credit: On The Red Line).
All four women and three of the six GB men qualified for tomorrow's European Champs middle distance final in today's tough races in steep terrain at Carona.
Alan Cherry ran relatively early and was unfortunately 2 seconds out from what turned out to be the qualification time. It was the next to last starter in his heat who came in 14 seconds too quickly for Alan to make it.
Continue reading...
The Men's and Women's European Middle Champs are on Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th May.
Good luck to the ten GB athletes entered, four women and six men, all with a good chance of getting through to the finals on Wednesday.
Continue reading...
(Photo: Wendy Carlyle)
Peter Hodkinson and Cat Taylor won the JK Middle World Ranking Event races at Brereton Spurs today.
Continue reading...Orienteering was included in the 2017 World Games held in Wrocław, Poland, with the orienteering races on 25th, 26th and 27th July. Wrocław is Poland's fourth largest city, the largest city in Western Poland. The World Games features a whole set of non-Olympic sports. In many countries the Games are highly prestigious with much media coverage akin to that of the Olympics. But not in Great Britain, where Parliament has decided Olympic medals are the be-all and end-all. This time some orienteers won or lost significant performance-related funding deals from their governments based on a few seconds.
The Maprunner website carries a full report.
In the final event, the sprint relay, held in heavy rain in the park and zoo by Centennial Hall, Great Britain came 5th. Below is a link to a video of the whole race.
The 2017 World Championships took place in Estonia from 1st - 7th July. The event was based in Tartu. The Championships were supported by Nokian Tyres.
Britain sent a team of 16 athletes. They achieved one podium place, in the sprint relay.
Full results are at the Estonian World Champs site. A summary of British results follows below.
Continue reading...