Link to results:
https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/OD/2019/CoventryWeekend/
PDFs of the results:
Link to routegadget for both races:
https://www.od.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#58
Link to winsplits:
http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=63464
Organiser's Comments:
Organising the Coventry Urban has been quite tricky. Getting permissions from the City Council, Coventry University, Cathedral and other private property owners took some time and didn't always go our way. The city was also very busy on the day. Threading our courses through the Pride event meant compromises had to be made. Their set up on the day was entirely different to what we were told it would be anyway so marshals had to try to direct runners through the area to avoid any conflict. Thank you Juliette for a difficult job well done! There is an enormous amount of demolition and construction work going on within the ring road at present and this has meant map and course alterations more or less on a daily basis for the last month.
In the end it all came together quite nicely and I was particularly pleased with the way the assembly park took on a sort of village atmosphere.
Let me emphasise that this event would not have been possible without the skill and unlimited patience of Bruce in mapping and re-mapping the city to take account of the huge changes taking place every day and also planning and re-planning the courses. The amount of work he has done has been epic.
Thank you to the team leaders - Siân on registration (busy), Trevor on parking (smooth) and Sophie on start (slick).
Also thanks to the 40 other helpers who all made it possible.
The weekend also gave us the opportunity to try out Sportident contactless controls and SIACs, entries, timing and results service. All went extremely smoothly and I thank Jeff Powell-Davis from SI for spending the weekend with us and working very hard to ensure we deployed the equipment correctly and ensuring the timing and results were produced in a professional manner.
Thanks also to our controller - Roger Thetford from TVOC who gave us the benefit of his vast experience on urban events. Also to David Rosen (SROC), Henry Morgan (POTOC) & Nick Campbell (DEE) for agreeing to be on a jury which was not required !
Phil Kirk
Planner’s Comments:
Thanks for coming to the event and for the many compliments on both the map and courses today.
The map was a culmination of over 18 months of mapping effort, latterly mainly trying to keep it up to date with the many construction/demolition site changes and “alterations” to previously agreed control sites such as the 199 last control which was on a tree until it was chopped down with about a week to go. Due to the many changes, courses were constantly evolving and amendments were made to several courses on the final Tuesday when one area on the eastern edge of the campus was blocked off on 2 out of 3 sides. I even checked most control sites in the rain on Saturday whilst most of you were running around Warwick Uni but not late enough to spot that 206 was chopped down to just a tree stump sometime after this!
After Saturday, I certainly appreciated the sunny weather organised by Phil.
Most seemed to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the terrain and many commented that they enjoyed the unrelenting technical challenge. The fastest M21 competitor commented that he wanted to plan ahead but the course never really gave him the opportunity… A few did find the technical challenge too much for their concentration and either managed to mis-punch at an adjacent control site or miss a control completely. Some also found the multi-level carpark confusing although this was mainly those who admitted they hadn’t read my “additional details” pdf! Don’t worry as by the next event in Coventry it will probably have been demolished…
Even after recent on-site discussions with the Pride organisers, Pride Coventry in the University Square east of the Cathedral caused some issues. The southern marked OOB section (Fire stage and stalls) never appeared and the northern Phoenix stage section was larger than planned with no real clear route kept for competitors between controls 190 and 202. We posted a marshal on the confusing western edge in an attempt to mitigate for the marked OOB areas not matching with the actual Pride areas but even this confused at least one competitor (sorry).
Note that I planned originally to give all courses a control actually inside the old cathedral ruins but that was OOB this time as it was supposedly being used for a Pride Sports day – again there was nothing to be seen! Maybe next time?
Most courses still had the opportunity to run between the old and new cathedrals together with a control or 2 in the Priory Gardens which are exposed ruins of the mainly hidden Medieval cathedral. The section of the courses in Lady Herbert’s Garden also caused issues for some although again mainly those who hadn’t studied the additional details document, maps and photos.
Many seemed to appreciate the use of the dashed bridge symbol for the narrow elevated bridges and asked also why it couldn’t be applied to all “tunnel” edges. I did investigate this but a shorter version with only a single gap is much more open to misinterpretation.
Many commented that they liked the new Multi-level hatched symbol, but would have liked more contrast to make the stripes more visible when used for smaller areas. I totally agree with this comment and will investigate further with a view to a recommendation to the Map Advisory Group for all UK ISSprOM maps.
Finally, just a thanks to the assistant control hangers (Liz, Richard and Duncan) & all the enthusiastic OD control collectors. After an early and busy start it is always nice to have others volunteer to get the controls back in, even if releasing some of the over-tight Gripples proved tricky (or impossible).
Bruce Bryant (Mapper / Planner)