Nopesport

British Orienteering Championships 2004
Incorporating Future Champions Cup Round 4 and Including UKCup Round 3.
Held on Simonside, near Rothbury, North-East England.

Since its original announcement this event had been clouded by criticisms, criticisms of the choice of area, the time of year. When the relays, originally planned for the next day, were cancelled due to withdrawal of permission for the area people asked serious question about whether NEOA, one of BOFs smallest federations, was really up to holding this major event. When it was announced that cagoules would be compulsory eyebrows were raised, questions were asked about whether this was symptomatic of the state of British Orienteering.

It has to be said that NEOA did a fantastic job, and had the weather been a little more favourable then BOC2004 would have been a great event. However a persistent driving rain and waterlogged car park more than dampened the atmosphere. The finish arena should have been great – a field sloping towards the hillside with full spectator friendliness, excellent commentary provided courtesy of Andy Monro and MC Pooley and spectator controls on the longer courses. However the howling gale meant that it was impossible to pitch club tents safely, and those that did go up were quickly struck again, mostly through choice, the Harlequins one after it blew into the next field. Hence there were little or no spectators at the finish, most people congregating near the download area. But here again the weather played its part, threatening to destroy the marquee holding enquiries and the computers. The organisers acted quickly, at one point there was someone holding every pole while other scurried about emptying the tent, moving the essentials – download – to a car and everything else was thrown in the back of a van. There was a short period while download was out of commission, but it was quickly up and running again and queues quickly dispersed.

The actual orienteering was by all accounts quite fun, the long run to start being into the wind meaning much of the course was run with the wind from behind. Courses started with short legs in tricky forest before emerging out onto the open fells with very long legs giving plenty route choice on most courses. Some passed over the hill forts on the top of the hill, while the very lucky could catch a glimpse of the stunning views when a break in the cloud offered them. Only the longer courses had to turn back into the wind towards the end of the course, one runner said it felt like ‘going from 2min/km to 20min/km’.

The adverse conditions meant the prize-giving was postponed until the JK to allow people to leave early, and the following days warm-down event was cancelled, probably due to the state of the parking field. This is another tragic set-back for the organisers which was completely out of their hands. On the plus side, the orienteering was good, and all the ‘right’ people seemed to walk away with the titles.

Given the inclement conditions and some personal issues it was hard to catch up with the results and class winners. If you want to tell us about your winning run email me. A more in-depth look at specific classes and courses plus a report on the UKCup courses and FCC classes will be online soon. Don’t forget to have your say on the event in the nopesport.com forums.

Full results are here