GB athletes training camp in Glasgow

The aim of this camp was primarily to prepare athletes for the unique challenges of World Games, where the sprint terrain will be at the sight of the 2024 international horticultural expo, which has been described by the iof advisor that it “offers some of the best sprint orienteering terrain I have ever witnessed”. We liaised with the athletes selected for World Games and decided that Glasgow offered the closest feasible sprint orienteering relevant for these horticultural gardens. 

The secondary aim of the camp was to prepare athletes that were targeting EOC and its selection races: the masterplan adventure Sprint Scotland races. These races will likely be flat and extremely fast, with a focus on routechoice selection.

The first session on Saturday morning was in Strathclyde uni and surrounding housing. This had a mix of demanding routechoices and tricky execution to really test athletes.

Saturday’s afternoon session was in Queen’s park. This was really aimed at trying to be China relevant with numerous artificial barriers creating extremely hard execution for the athletes. One athlete was quoted in saying: that “excellent courses turn(ed) an alright area into a great one”.

On Sunday, first we turned our focus to the middle distance in China with some forest reps in Pollok park. This was followed by some manic microsprint in Pollok house gardens which should be relevant for the horticultural gardens in China. Athletes also just found this microsprint really fun, which always makes training easier.

Our final session was mostly relevant for EOC with some classic sprintervals in Commonwealth village. These were very routechoice (rather than execution) focused, as courses likely will be in Belgium. The last rep was taken as a race pace mass start effort, perfect practice for knockout which athletes rarely get the chance to practice their skills for. Routechoice analysis, provided by us, helped athletes analyse their routechoice evaluations to generate learning afterwards.

Overall, it was a very successful camp in preparing athletes for the upcoming sprint season. The camp was funded by money provided by Masterplan Adventure. This camp would not have been possible without the help and cooperation of St. Andrew’s Orienteering Club (Glasgow) - STAG, and we are very grateful to them for their assistance.