Saturday April 9th - British Sprint Championships
Sunday April 10th - British Middle Distance Championships

Results, including WinSplits and SplitsBrowser can be found on the SI website
http://www.sportident.co.uk/

Routegadget is available from the Southdowns Orienteers website

Results for Saturday's String and Naughty Numbers courses

Officials' Comments

Co-odinator (and day 1 mapper) - Neil Crickmore

I enjoy planning, quite like controlling, really don't like organising. However I'd already planned on both areas before so moved out of my comfort zone for this event. From early on I was talking to Brighton and Hove Albion about their new stadium and whether or not we could use it in any way or form. Unfortunately it was always likely to still be a building site. The good news was that a brand new bridge was being built that would be open at the end of 2010 allowing us to link the two campuses. It's still not open but I am indebted to BHAFC for allowing us to use it in its incomplete state. Both Brighton and Sussex Universities have been very supportive of the event, there were quite a few restrictions on where we could take the courses but rather than splatter the map with OOB screens the courses were carefully planned around most of them. This was the first running of the new sprint format and potentially there was a lot that could go wrong. I talked to SportIdent about whether they could handle this format and they said yes. I paid them money and they delivered exactly as promised. Personally I feel that this was a pound of your entry fee very well spent. I didn't pay our two entry/enquiry secretaries Ali and Bridget Hooper but they still did an outstanding job sorting out all the non-elite start times and heat allocations and dealing with the many late requests for start time changes. There is not enough space here to thank all the volunteers, even though they deserve it, however I would like to thank Karen Ashworth who took over the job of safety officer at late notice and with no little relish. I don't think that I've been nagged so much since I left home. That of course brings me onto my wife, for the sake of marital harmony I decided not to get involved in course planning in any way. Several people congratulated me on the sprint courses over the weekend - they were entirely Sue and Jonny's doing. Mapping the area was fun, helped by the fact that my office and labs are on the area, although at the start of the year my graduate students were surprised to see me in so much at weekends. I'm not very good with contours so have Roger Maher and Bruce Bryant to thank for much help and advice on these. The middle distance championships were much more straightforward to organise especially with Tulleys farm allowing us to use their facilities. I did try and turn my planning interest towards the design of the two event arenas. The basic concept at both was to have an arc around the run in bordered by the traders etc. To emphasize the elite champs I wanted them to start, or at least pre-start in the arena. This then had to be designed around commentary having a good view of both the run in and the elite start. I think it worked, others may disagree. Organising both days was far less than twice the effort of one day - it also allowed for some interesting comparisons, I think I have enough data now on alternative map reclaim techniques for a short academic paper to the West Sussex Journal of Psychology. As for the weather; we tell our prospective students that we are the sunniest campus in the UK, so there was no excuse for forgetting the sun tan lotion - which many of you clearly did. I did have a wet weather plan but threw it in the metaphorical bin on the Tuesday before.

Sprint Planners' Comments - Sue and Jonathan Crickmore

Adding Brighton University to the existing Sussex map gave the scope for the two distinct rounds, with the intricate buildings and levels of Brighton allowing us to set you a range of puzzles. It was certainly interesting watching you from the central courtyard. Chicken and headless were two words that sprang to mind. In the finals we aimed to give you all some longer route choice straight from the start area and then send you into the complicated accomodation, with the diagonal blocks in the NW always causing problems and of course both rounds tested your fitness at the end with the climb back up to assembly. As is inevitable in an event in this sort of environment, we were affected by over running building works, and continuous landscaping, with the removal of the large thicket at 205 and an uncrossable fence near the bridge occurring 1 week beforehand. In the hour before the event a control was moved from a treated piece of grass. And of course there was the magnificent bridge, due to be finished 2 months earlier.............
3 points:
1) Sprinting off from the start is not a great idea, especially when the first control is very close. Many overshot the first controls in the Heats and the finals.
2) If you have a control on an uncrossable feature, check your control descriptions to see which side it is on. We expected to see some people gazing down on 111 and you didn't disappoint us.
3) Olive green means the same on any orienteering map. In this sort of area the planners can plan courses to reduce the temptation to go where you shouldn't, but can't remove it altogether.
The courses were a completely joint effort and it proved extremely useful to have two very different views on legs. With 124 control sites and 30 courses this was a mammoth task, assisted of course by the mapper also being in the house. Thanks to Neil for all his help (in between mapping and organising) to Bryony for all her help on the day and to Steve for his calm efficient controlling.

Middle Planner's Comments - Vince Joyce

Congratulations to the Elite Champions Claire Ward and Graham Gristwood and to all class champions. The recommended winning time is 30 to 35 minutes for all TD5 courses so well done to Claire Ward (W21), Aidan Smith (M16) and Kirsty Staunton (W55) for breaking the 30 minute barrier. All of the course winning times were close to the lower limit which reflects the superb conditions. Worth Lodge is a fairly typical South East forest and to get continuous navigation at TD5 is difficult but my aim was to plan courses as challenging as the terrain would allow and practically every leg was designed to be quickest if run straight but would require strong running and confident navigation. Thanks to everyone who has put their route on Routegadget. Thanks to Mike Forrest for his help and advice and to Kenny, Alan, Ruth, Ian, Jaquie, Andy, and Elizabeth for control collecting and special thanks to Chris Jepson for helping to hang controls until it got dark on Saturday evening and for a very early start on Sunday to complete the job. Thanks to the Crickmore family and all the other Southdowners who helped produce a brilliant weekend of orienteering.

Middle Controller's Comments - Mike Forrest

Quite a few people commented on how relaxed I seemed to be during the races on Sunday. Well, that is a consequence of working with a club like SO who have everything under control with quiet efficiency, leaving the controller with very little to worry about on the day. So, it was very pleasant to be able to settle down to the Sunday paper whilst you were all sweating your way around Worth Lodge. Vince planned really good courses, just right to test your orienteering skills under the pressure of a very fast forest, which were very close to the guidelines for winning times for almost all of the age classes and created some really close battles for British Champion titles. I think my only regret, with the benefit of hindsight, was the inclusion of control 122. A few people did comment to me about it, and although it was in the right place, perhaps the restricted visibility of that bit of wood so early in people's courses would have been better avoided, so apologies for those that had difficulty there. Otherwise, most of you seem to have enjoyed the challenge set by your course, and of course appreciated the fine weather that SO managed to arrange. It was also a measure of their efficiency that SO delivered the prize giving earlier than planned, enabling everyone to get away in good time to battle with the Sunday traffic. Congratulations to all the class winners and roll on 2012 in Yorkshire.

The photo to the right shows Ollie O'Brien negotiating some steps on the University of Sussex Campus.