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

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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.

Tessa Strain said:  “I was happy with my race. I know my fitness isn't as good as the best and so I just focussed on getting my controls right and was pleased to be within touching distance of the lead.”

Peter Hodkinson said:  “I think we performed well as a team and I'm happy with a strong run on my leg. I started with a small gap ahead of the main group of favourites and worked hard to gradually close this throughout the course. By the end, I had gained time on the leaders and set Ralph off with the main pack so I'm satisfied that I did the job that needed to be done. There were a lot of routes doubling back in the zoo so I was often able to see the teams ahead which really helped me to push on as I saw the runners ahead getting closer to me.”

Ralph Street said:  “I was really excited to be going out amongst some good runners, there were a lot of 50/50 decisions to start with and we stayed together as a pack. Around halfway through the zoo, I saw an opportunity to potentially gain time and this put me into the lead of the pack. From there I tried to push on and close the gap to Kyburz, unfortunately, my orienteering suffered a little bit but overall I feel I did gain time by making this tactical decision.”

Megan Carter Davies said:  “Tessa, Peter and Ralph sent me out in a great position. I knew that realistically I was not going to hold our 2nd place so there was no point worrying about it but instead have a good run for me. I did that and was happy to see that I was actually able to keep with the other girls out there. I misread the hedges after the arena passage allowing Helena to overtake but otherwise, I am really happy with how that went and am very proud of my teammates for doing such a great job today.”

Congratulations to all the athletes that have taken part in The World Games 2017. The GB team will now look ahead to World Cup Round 3 in Latvia which takes place on 25th - 27th August 2017.

The full set of reports on the World Games 2017 are available below:

The World Games 2017 continues with the Sprint Relay

Tessa Strain finished in 13th place at the World Games Middle Race

The World Games moves on to the Middle Distance tomorrow

Seventh Place for Ralph Street at the World Games

The World Games 2017