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.

Proceedings began with the Women’s race, and it was Jo Shepherd who took the first leg for Britain. After an early mistake in the green, Jo settled well, but a short forking for Switzerland meant that they had already broken clear of the pack by the arena passage, with the pack trailed out behind them. To the 8^th control, a difficult forking for both the men and the women, Norway through away second place, missing big and allowing Jo to gain more places as Estonia broke clear to join Switzerland. By the turn for the arena, Jo had clawed her way up to 10^th, as in front of her the favourites were strung out, each choosing different routes on the long leg. By the end of this leg, and as they neared the arena, it was still Switzerland in the lead, but Sweden had cut the deficit significantly, with Estonia just falling off the pace and Norway gaining time back from their earlier mistake. Jo lost time late on in the parkland, handing over to Megan Carter Davies in 13^th place.

Megan was quick out of the blocks and was already pushing through the field by the spectator control. Estonia was quick to fall off the pace in front, as Denmark and GBR worked well together, moving into 7^th by the arena. Across into the next series of controls, and the lead would change numerous times, with Sweden, Switzerland and Russia all alternating. Norway was the fastest moving team in the forest though, with Marianne Anderson recovering the lost time from the first leg well. Megan was holding her own behind the leaders and was still working well with the Danes, but the gap to the leaders was growing. As the athletes hit the long leg, again there was no single route taken amongst the leaders. With Russia and Norway both getting stuck in the tougher, greener sections, it was Sweden who capitalised and moved clear, with Karolin Ohlsson using her superior speed to drop Jakob of Switzerland. Megan took a far wider route, flat but long, around through the arena, and though lost some time not as much as others. Sadly, so hard was she pushing that she ended up missing a control close to the end of her course, chasing hard to get in touch with the second pack for her teammate Cat Taylor. This meant a disqualification for the British women.

On the final leg, Tove Alexanderson of Sweden and Judith Wyder of Switzerland were neck and neck throughout the whole course, exchanging the lead when either picked a better line through the green. As they hit the long leg back to the arena, each choosing a slightly different route, refusing to run together. It was Alexanderson who had the advantage on the climb to the 14^th control, breaking the Swiss runner and leading all to believe that she had got the gold in her grasp. An error on the 15h though, a hesitation through thinking the control wasn’t hers (perhaps due to the oxygen debt accrued from pushing so hard on the climb) and Wyder capitalised, kicking for home and opening up a gap on the Swede which it would be impossible for her to overcome. Behind, Russian had sealed the bronze with a textbook run from Middle Distance champion Gemperle, with Norway not having enough to continue moving through the field, having to settle for fourth place.

Across to the Men’s race and it proved just as thrilling as the Women’s race. With the same team for GBR as the team that claimed 5^th at the European Championships, we knew that a great performance was both expected and achievable. Peter Hodkinson took charge of the first leg, and duly delivered the perfect start for the team. The pack was close and the pace unrelenting for the first half, with no splits appearing until the tricky 8^th control, that had caused so many problems in the Women’s race. It was here that a pack of 5 formed, with GBR tucked in. Into a section which extended the Men’s course across the hills, which the Women didn’t enter, and Peter was sitting well until the 11^th control where he made a small mistake on the wide forkings. 10^th at this spot Peter gained back a huge chunk of time on the long leg back towards the arena on the 14^th control and had moved into 3^rd place. He would not relinquish this position and would change over just 41 seconds down on Latvia and Norway (1^st and 2^nd respectively).

Norway moved clear early on the second leg, but as with Peter, Kris Jones stayed steady in the pack, hitting his controls well and minimising any errors. At the front Norway and Latvia were pushing the pace, with the chasers splintering on the 11^th control, with Kris slipping into 5^th place 50 seconds down on the lead. On the long leg, the runners all split, with several different routes being chosen, and as they hit the slopes to the 14^th control, and Kris had jumped up the pack. Into the changeover and GBR were in second place, with a 4-second gap to Norway in front, but with 15 seconds back to Latvia and Finland and another 30 seconds back to a larger chasing pack.

Latvia got the shorter gaffles early on 3^rd leg, opening up a lead before the arena passage, with a 47-second gap to the chasers behind, with Ralph Street leading the chasers, but with the big teams right on his tail. Norway would move back into the lead alongside Latvia, with France now into 3^rd place just 15 seconds behind at the 10^th control, and GBR just another 15 seconds back. The packs all split at the 11^th control, with the home team Latvia missing badly, as well as France and Sweden. They all corrected well though, and all the runners were strung out in one long line as the athletes hit the long leg back to the arena. Here, Norway and Sweden went straight, with the other 7 teams all going south and around, taking on the climb at the end of the leg. Sweden came unstuck early on the leg, making big errors and falling from contention. As the GPS lines converged on the 14^th control, Norway looked to be in the lead and would hit the control 14 seconds ahead of the chasers. Up the hill, the chasing pack had blown to pieces, with Switzerland and France breaking clear of the chasers. With just the simple parkland to go, it would be hard for the chasers to gain back the time on Norway, who did enough to take a 4 second lead over Switzerland, who had dropped France for the silver medal. Behind, it was the closest podium in World Championship history, with GBR coming in an eventual 6^th place, just 37 seconds down on the gold medal, behind Austria and the Czech Republic in 4^th and 5^th respectively.

Next up on Saturday is the Long Distance, the race every athlete wants to win. It will be the final race of the Championships, and the final chance for some to salvage their championships with a gold medal. Make sure you are following @GBR on twitter for live reporting on the final race of the championships.

Full results:

Women:

1 Switzerland 1:45:03
2 Sweden 1:45:18 (+15 seconds)
3 Russian Federation 1:47:20 (+2 minutes 17 seconds)

GBR – Mispunched.

Men:

1 Norway 1:47:26
2 Switzerland 1:47:30 (+4 seconds)
3 France 1:47:36 (+6 seconds)

6 Great Britain 1:48:03 (+37 seconds)

Report by William Gardner