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Introduction
The North West is one of the more innovative and advanced orienteering regions in the country – just look at the lead with electronic punching. South Ribble are one of the leading clubs pursuing the development of the sport and one area of attraction is staging more ‘prestige events’. With the large number of National and Badge events throughout the country offering a common format of orienteering the elite have run their own UK Cup races for the last few years. These events are often very imaginative and reflect the type of races that they are now being expected to compete in at international level. Examples include park races, chasing starts after a short ‘prologue race’, long distance races, mass starts etc. often with spectator viewing a prime objective.
Next spring, South Ribble OC will be staging an exciting weekend of UK Cup racing. Saturday will see the British Sprint Championships in Lancaster, while the British Blodslitet World Ranking Event will be on Sunday, at Simpson's Ground.
British Sprint Championships
South Ribble OC will
be staging the British Sprint Championships on Saturday 20th April. It will be held at Williamson Park
in Lancaster with winning times of around 15 minutes for each course.
Williamson Park also staged a Park Race during the World Cup races in 1998. The following is an extract from the race report:
"The first official Park-O race to take place in England was organised in conjunction with the World Cup series in the steep and in places quite dense woodland of Williamson Park. Gabor Dominyik of Hungary and ex-double World Junior Champion powered around the 18 controls on the 2.5 km course with 200m of climb to win by 12 seconds from Mikhael Mamleev from Russia. "This was one of the hardest park races I've ever done", commented Gabor at the finish. He ran round the course wearing normal training shoes; "I had a good run but probably missed some time because I couldn't get much grip on the steep slopes, but then again maybe I gained a bit on the tarmac paths", said Gabor. The M35 World Vets Champion and GB international Jonathan Musgrave finished in 3rd place 40 secs down. He thought the race was excellent and commented "My legs are more tired today at the finish than they were when I crossed the finishing line yesterday after running over five times the distance". The women ran the same course as the men and Natalia Skrzypek of Poland took 4 mins longer to finish in 21.03, followed by Julia Morozova, Russia in 21.34 and Jo Smith from GB in 22.18. They took quite similar route choices apart from 1-2 where Gabor tried to go straight down a cliff. He found this slightly difficult in training shoes and kept well away from them on the rest of the course."
As you can see, those that thought Park-O was childs play were pleasantly surprised at the significant orienteering challenge created by the potent mixture of speed and level of moderate technical difficulty.
Lancaster
Lancaster is a beautiful city, offering a wealth of facilities and well worth a visit. It is easily accessible from the M6 motorway, yet only a 30 minute drive from the southern Lake District, where we will be holding the Blodslitet race. For further information about Lancaster and surrounding areas, contact Lancaster City Council who will be happy to help with your Accommodation arrangements.
British Blodslitet World Ranking Event (incorporating the UK Cup)
South Ribble OC will be staging the British Blodslitet on Sunday 21st April. This is a mass start long distance race using 2, 3 or 4 clover leaf forking loops with competitors returning to the finish arena after each lap. The last loop will be significantly longer than the earlier loops and consist of a common final section. The winning time for the mens elite winner is likely to be about 120 minutes, and the women about 100 minutes. There will be 7 courses to cater for the different age groups as well as a 60 minute Score Event and String Course. The area being used is Simpson's Ground.
Again, we would like to stress that even though both events are part of the UK Cup series, we are encouraging all orienteers to attend, regardless of ability. You do not have to be an elite runner to participate. It is an excellent opportunity to try out two race formats that you may not have tried before, in two excellent areas.
We look forward to seeing you.
Last Updated : 06.11.01