QO at the British Sprint champs
Robot at the British sprint champs
On the last weekend in June the British Sprint Championships came to Bristol, and we were treated to a superb day of racing through a deserted student campus.
The University of West of England campus made an excellent venue - not only did we go up and down steps, around hedges and under canopies, but several times we were taken into buildings along corridors and out the other side. So one minute you're on grass, the next on carpet. We were spared the recent heatwave but it was still a fine summer's day - sweaty conditions for running, but ideal for loitering around between races too.
As usual for orienteering the format is excessively complicated. It's a two-race format with a qualifier and a final, finishing in the top half of the qualifiers gets you to the A-final, those below the cut go to the B-final which is a different course. The poor planners had to provide over 20 different courses to satisfy the rules. BOK had to cater for around 750 competitors, but they did well with the organising - a few minor snags, but on the whole it was a great success.
A number of QO ran and also provided help on the day to hosts BOK. Races are only around 15 minutes so quick decisions are the order of the day. No podium places for QO but the high-profile competition meant we were competing against most of the best in the country. Here's how we got on.
Best QO results were from Rosie and Sheila. Both qualified for their A-finals. Rosie came 6th out of 8 on W70, and Sheila 7th out of 17 in a tight race on W60.
I (Richard) qualified for the A-final and was 12th out of 17 on M55, some way behind the pacers. But my courses were great fun, I think I had more indoor sections than the others.
Andy and Tony both missed the cut and ran in B-finals, but Andy came a good 5th out of 21 on M60, and Tony 7th out of 11 on M75.
Phil and Bee both did well in the qualifier, 23rd on M45 and 11th on M14 respectively, but did not stay for the afternoon finals.
Our only competitor in the open class, Rob, ran at a fast pace, but unfortunately missed a control in the qualifier and so had to settle for a place in the B-final. In the afternoon he would have been 10th out of 40, had the morning mis-punch not made him non-competitive.
Here's an extract from my course, how would you have run 11-12-13-14? Note that anything pale blue is indoors, and you can't afford to think about it for too long!