Organiser of this year's British Middle Distance Championships Organiser, Sal Chaffey, says:
"Derwent Valley Orienteers are looking forward to welcoming you to Chinley Churn, a relatively new Orienteering area, that promises a fast and exciting competition. We have an arena finish adjacent to parking, traders, commentary and a large orienteering maze."

Derwent Valley Orienteers Planner, Ranald Macdonald, says: 
"The course and warm-up maps are now ready for printing, and control-hanging routes have been agreed for the 71 controls. Arrangements are being made for some temporary stiles to be placed at crossing points, as Chinley Churn is a popular area with walkers, due to the fantastic views!"

More details can be found on the British Middle distance Championships website here. 

The previous day, the British Sprint Orienteering Championships will be held at Loughborough University.

The Loughborough University campus is over 400 acres and is predominately a complex mix of residential, academic and sports buildings but does also include some woodland areas. The central campus is on the side of a ridge providing some contour detail and there are expanses of grass in various parts of the campus. The area will create fast and challenging racing that will produce worthy British Champions.

The organising team have been working for several months already in bringing together the event again in 2019. The event centre will be at the Edward Herbert Building, one of the main facilities buildings on the campus, and we again have use of the multi-storey car park to ease access problems. Planning has been underway for many weeks, and the morning heats area, and afternoon finals area will be on different parts of the campus.

More details can be found on the Sprint Championships website here.  

If you haven't yet entried then there are only days left to enter!  

Entries close for both events at midnight on Tuesday 27 August 2019.
Entries for Championship courses can be made here on SportIdent.

In the men's Relay last leg runner Gustav Bergman went out in third place on the last leg for Sweden, but with a confident run he overhauled both Finland and Norway to bring Sweden to gold by 1.34. Finland held on for the silver medals, and France pulled up a place to take the bronze.

Leg three was memorable in particular for the dominating run by Gustav Bergman. Setting off 1.22 down, he had Norwegian Magne Dæhli in sight by the arena passage, and after a mistake by Dæhli, almost caught up with him. “I could see Dæhli, looking over his shoulder from time to time to see where I was, so I knew he was stressed,” said Bergman afterwards. “ I knew then that if I ran my own race I would win.” And so it proved, with Dæhli making another mistake at the end of a long leg and not being seen by Bergman again.

Great Britain’s women's team finished in 9th place with Charlotte Watson on Leg 1; Megan Carter Davies on Leg 2 and Cat Taylor on Leg 3. Great Britain’s men’s team finished in 17th place with Peter Hodkinson on Leg 1; Graham Gristwood on Leg 2 and Ralph Street on Leg 3.

The women’s result means topping Division 2 of the Nations League and promotion to Division 1.

This means that Great Britain’s women will have three long spaces at WOC 2021.

Megan Carter Davies
"It was great to be part of the team and I’m happy with how I ran my Leg. I think I did the best job I could do. Still a few mistakes but in general it was fast and I tried to be secure where I needed to be."

Charlotte Watson
"I'm pleased to have kept it together on my first WOC Relay. I managed to stay in the pack I was with but had hoped to have been able to run a bit faster."
 

Official results:  Women Relay

1  Sweden 01:35:49 +00:00:00

2  Switzerland 01:35:53 +00:00:04

3  Russian Federaon 01:36:56 +00:01:07  

4  Norway 01:37:02 +00:01:13

5  Czech Republic 01:40:31 +00:04:42

6  Finland 01:42:01 +00:06:12

7  Estonia 01:43:19 +00:07:30

8  Denmark 01:45:08 +00:09:19

9  Great Britain 01:45:13 +00:09:24

10  Austria 01:47:39 +00:11:50

Official Results - Mens Relay

1  Sweden 01:40:42 +00:00:00

2  Finland 01:42:16 +00:01:34

3  France 01:42:25 +00:01:43

4  Czech Republic 01:42:32 +00:01:50

5  Norway 01:42:37 +00:01:55

6  Switzerland 01:43:25 +00:02:43

7  Austria 01:46:12 +00:05:30

8  Ukraine 01:47:18 +00:06:36

9  Latvia 01:48:17 +00:07:35

10 Germany 01:49:18 +00:08:36

----

17 Great Britain 01:54:30 +00:13:48

Find more results here:  Official results

For more information about the World Orienteering Championships and the Relay:  https://www.woc2019.no/en/

Congratulations to the GB Team.  

Photo credits:  Rob Lines

All Women’s Teams Leg 1 runners mass start at 16:20 (UK time:  15:20)

Leg 1 runner hand over to leg 2 runner and the leg 3 runner leads the team to the final finish.
Approximate combined (all three legs) winning time is 1 hour 43 minutes and we expect the World Champion team at the finish by 18:03.

At 18:20 the championships will move over to the Men’s competition. Mass start is at 18:30 (UK time:  17:30). 

Watch all the excitement of the Relay race LIVE today here at IOF live.

Best wishes to the GB Team.

Elsewhere in the men’s race, Alex Carcas tactically retired after a mistake to focus on the relay tomorrow, and Harrison McCartney finished in 68th, after battling through from an early start, making the tracks for everyone else. Ali Masson finished in 60th after a race he described as ‘horrible, horrible, horrible’ and Nathan Lawson and Matt Fellbaum both achieved top 50s, coming in 47th and 39th respectively. 

In the women’s race, history was also made, with 3 top 20 finishes in the JWOC long race for the first time ever, with GB one of only four countries with this strength in depth (a group which notably doesn’t include Finland or Sweden). This means that the relay A team for tomorrow all ran exceptionally, with Jenny Ricketts and Fiona Bunn separated by just 6 seconds in 13th and 14th respectively, and Grace Molloy in 20th to post her second top 20 in her first ever JWOC races, following on from her 19th in the middle final. Fiona said of her first top 15, ‘I was pleased to finally get a decent result, even after a shaky start to the race. It was a tough one, but I'm very proud of the whole team's performances and super excited for the relay!!!’ 

Meanwhile, Chloe Potter ran herself to 71st place, about a minute behind Alice Rigby, who finished in 65th, with Cecilie Andersen less than 3 minutes off a top 20, finishing 34th. 

Full results are available at http://online4.tulospalvelu.fi/tulokset/en/2017_jwoc_long/. 

Alongside Fiona, we are also excited for the relay races tomorrow, where both the Men’s and Women’s teams have real chances of a podium finish. Follow the event live from the links on the JWOC website, with the Men off at 11:30 BST and the Women next at 12:45 BST. 

Credit - David Bunn