The 2024 Orienteering World Cup got underway in Switzerland under very variable weather conditions. As the first runners in the men’s qualification got underway the sun was shining, but halfway through heavy rain made the short tricky courses even more complicated.
Due to the weather being so bad, the Womens start was delayed by 30mins and the rain eased, so that the rest of the qualification could go ahead.
Of the British Team, Ralph Street, Nathan Lawson, Rachel Brown and Cecilie Andersen made it out of the qualification heats into the quarter finals the following day.
Fortunately, the previous day’s heavy rain was nowhere to be seen, and the sun shone in central Olten that hosted all of the Saturday’s races.
Joey Hadorn (SUI) and Tove Alexandersson (SWE) took the first Orienteering World Cup wins of 2024, on a flat and fast urban terrain course in the old town centre. The semi-finals featured “runner choice”, leaving the athletes with 20 seconds before the start to decide one of three course options. It was at this point that Ralph Street along with Sweden’s Hanna Lundberg missed out on the top 2 to earn a place in the final.
Unfortunately, Cecilie Andersen, Nathan Lawson and Rachel Brown did not make it out of the competitive quarter finals, all with close finishes.
Ralph Street |
Semi Final |
Nathan Lawson |
Quarter Final |
Rachel Brown |
Quarter Final |
Cecilie Andersen |
Quarter Final |
Sunday hosted the Individual Sprint, where athletes returned to the old city centre of Olten, after starting the course in Eastern Olten.
In an event won by Switzerland’s Natalia Gemperle and Sweden’s Emil Svensk Great Britain had 12 competitors on the start line. Unfortunately, Megan Carter Davies as reigning World Champion was still unwell and unable to compete.
After recently returning from studying in America, Grace Molloy was highest of the British Athletes in 14th place, with Ralph Street leading the Men’s team in 16th.
The team quickly moved on to Genoa, Italy where World Cup 2 will be taking place this weekend with another Individual Sprint on the Saturday and Sprint Relay and once again the British athletes will be hoping for good performances as the World Championships on home soil gets ever closer!
Mens |
|
Womens |
|
Ralph Street |
16th |
Grace Molloy |
14th |
Freddie Carcas |
46th |
Charlotte Ward |
25th |
Nathan Lawson |
50th |
Fiona Bunn |
37th |
Jonathan Crickmore |
54th |
Cecilie Andersen |
49th |
Peter Hodkinson |
67th |
Rachel Brown |
61st |
William Gardner |
83rd |
Mairi Eades |
102nd |
With thanks to our photographer at the event Robert Lines. A full gallery of all the images from World Cup Round 1 is available here. You can also watch interviews carried out by Edward Lines with the athletes post race via our Instagram or Facebook.
In an extremely exciting development, the IOF have today announced that the World Orienteering Championships 2024, which is taking place from 12-16 July 2024 in Edinburgh, will be broadcast live via eurovisionsport.com in France, Germany and the UK.
The news comes as the International Orienteering Federation, IOF, has entered a partnership with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s leading alliance for public service media.
This means that even if you are unable to attend the event as a spectator or participant in the WOC Tour 2024, you will be able to follow and support Team GB by watching all the live action for free! All you need to do is sign up to access the coverage.
Get involved in the spirit of WOC 2024 from wherever you are based by setting up a WOC 2024 watch party for your club members! It’s a great opportunity to see Team GB in action as the events unfold and support the national team as they embark on the competition.
That’s right, from 25 May you will be able to catch all the highlights from the Orienteering World Cup Round 1 in Switzerland! Watch the event live via IOF TV.
You will be able to watch back on how our athletes navigated the course around the ‘railway central’ of Switzerland – Olten. Here is the full upcoming programme of orienteering events that will be broadcast:
May 25-26
Orienteering World Cup Round 1, Switzerland – highlights only
June 1-2
Orienteering World Cup Round 2, Italy – highlights only
July 12-16
World Orienteering Championships, Scotland – live broadcast
August 17-20
European Orienteering Championships, World Cup Round 3, Hungary – highlights only
September 26-29, Finland
Orienteering World Cup Round 4, Finland – highlights only
For full details, please read the IOF's press release.
The International Orienteering season is finally upon us! This week the selected athletes for Team GB will travel to Switzerland for World Cup Round 1. Here is a reminder of who will be representing the squad and how you can watch the competition online.
Start times are yet to be confirmed but it is likely the Men's teams will commence the race at 2pm and the Women at 2:50pm. All times CEST (UTC +2)
Representing Team GB are:
Saturday 25 May: KO Sprint Final
Sunday 26 May: Individual Sprint- First Start 12:03
Good luck to each and every one of our athletes, we are very excited for the start of the international season and cannot wait to see all that it brings!
Visit the IOF's website to learn more about how you can catch all the action from the event. Or, simply follow this link to IOF TV to choose which package you wish to purchase.
Last weekend the British Middle Championships took place at Danefield, Otley. In this blog, organiser Chris Burden tells us more about the planning process for this year's event.
Written by Organiser Chris Burden with contribution from planner David Williams.
The choice of areas seems to go back a long way; certainly several years before Covid disrupted the events schedule.
The original area we thought of using for the Middles, was discovered while a few of us were on a mountain bike ride deeper in the Dales. Danefield was originally only the fallback if the Dales area didn’t prove viable. As it turned out, Danefield, an old favourite, proved far the better area. The Dales area was not, as a result pursued, but a new neighbouring area has proved excellent, and will be used for a Dales Weekend Classic Distance event in 2025.
Danefield is owned by Leeds City Council and access is managed through their Events in Park team who are always very supportive of orienteering.
David Williams, the planner, identified a possible field for the arena, which we had never used previously; the field just to the south of the one we eventually used. This allowed him to use the best of the area. He structured the courses Jan–March 2023 at the same time coordinating with Tony Thornley producing the completely revised map off new LIDAR data. By this time a year ago to allow review in competition condition the courses were more or less fully planned and controlled. Having had input during April 2023 from David Bowman assistant planner and Mark Garside (WCH) controller. Subsequently courses and map were given constant minor amendments and updates to take account of the storms, wet conditions and middle distance RWT rule changes.
The parking field has become a regular for us over the past 15 years, when we hold Regional events at Danefield. We knew it was well drained. It has coped admirably with the cars for all previous events. We’ve checked it regularly throughout this very wet winter, and never had any doubts about it coping, despite having to accommodate three times the number of vehicles we have previously. It meant quite a long walk to the arena, but we knew it was 100% reliable.
Last year by March the original assembly field was in prime condition. This year we did a final check three weeks before the event, just before the map proofs were ready to be printed. There was a strong chance the field would never drain sufficiently to take vehicles and 900+ pairs of feet. This was when our brilliant hosts, Sue and Howard Cliff really came into their own. They suggested we use the paddock and agreed to build us the bridge across the ditch leading to it. It proved the best of arenas. The grass didn’t cut up, and it was more compact than the original field which doubtless helped create the splendid atmosphere of the event.
The change of assembly field resulted in a few slight last-minute adjustments to the map, but did not affect the planning of the courses apart from the run-in.
We were able to pull the event off just using Aire members, which made recruitment and organising a good deal simpler than is often the case for a Major event. From what I saw and heard on the day, all the teams did a pretty seamless job.
At Danefield we were delighted to hear so many compliments about the courses and the organisation. The rain held off, although a little more sunshine and a warm wind from the south would have been appreciated. I guess you can’t have everything.
We were pleased to see that both Rob and Lindsey King’s String Course and Maze were well used.
Results from the British Middle Championships 2024.
Aire’s next large-scale events are the Sprint and Urban events in Leeds on 6–7 July 2024.
And the Dales Weekend in the Malham area on 14–15 September 2024.