On Saturday the British TrailO Championships (PreO) were held in Burnham Beeches, Slough. The course used a track along the bottom of a dry valley with complex contours enabling Tom Dobra (TVOC) (Planner) to set some very challenging controls. The course was split into two sections with the two Timed Controls between the them. Unfortunately, not long after the first competitor started, it began to rain and, at one point, this could be truthfully be described as a 'heavy downpour' - this made seeing the kites quite difficult.
Despite the problems, both Ben Kyd (MDOC) and John Kewley (MDOC) were able to correctly locate 22 of the 25 controls with Ben winning with a quicker time at the Timed Controls. In the P Class, Richard Keighley (WIM) took top place with Colin Duckworth (TVOC) second. In the Junior Class, James Curtis (SO) took top spot from Max Straube Roth (OD)
Luckily on Sunday, for the British TrailO Championships (TempO), held at the University of Reading Whiteknights campus, the weather was better. The TempO course, planned by Charles Bromley Gardner (BAOC), consisted of 8 stations with 5 tasks per station. Once again, Ben Kyd demonstrated his ability at quick terrain interpretation with only 2 errors over the 40 tasks - a feat matched (but in a slower time) only by Robertas Stankevič, one of two Lithuanians who had joined us for the weekend. James Curtis again gained top spot in the Junior class.
The results for the two Championship events were used to determine the overall 2024 British Champions. This was, of course, Ben Kyd in the Open Class with John Kewley second and Peter Dobra (SAX) third. In the P Class, Colin Duckworth's win in the TempO gave him the edge over Richard Keighley (2nd) and Peter Roberts (EBOR) (3rd). In the Juniors, James Curtis took first place.
The weekend also included a PreO Sprint event with a 20 control course planned by David Jukes (BKO). Here John Kewley was able to win through with his time being quicker than two others who also had 19 correct.
To access the maps and full results, see this site's BTOC page.
Top 3 in the Open Class Championships - 1st Ben Kyd (MDOC) (Centre), 2nd John Kewley (MDOC) (left) and 3rd Peter Dobra (SAX) (right)
Top 3 in the P Class Championships - 1st Colin Duckworth (TVOC) (Centre), 2nd Richard Keighley (WIM) (left) and 3rd Peter Roberts (EBOR) (right)
Today sees the publication of the Sepetember 2024 Newsletter. Cpoies can be downloaded from the Newsletter page of this site. Highlights include event reports from Italy, Norway, Sweden (the TrailO at the O-Ringen), Poland and Hungary/Slovakia (the PreWTOC 2025 weekend). In addition, Charles Bromley Gardner is featured in the regular 'Know your fellow TrailO competitor' section. And, of course, all the usual updates to ranking lists and scores in the different leagues are provided.
As is common practice, a country which is scheduled to host the World Championships attempts to give potential competitors a chance to experience the terrain at a ‘PreWTOC’ event. It is also a chance for the organising team to test their ideas and support systems in advance. With Slovakia and Hungary jointly staging WTOC 2025, they have jointly provided a weekend of TrailO. On Saturday, the Hungarians provided a PreO event on open terrain to the north of Lake Balaton. Today, competitors were in the wooded Small Carpathian hills to the north of Bratislava in Slovakia.
At the Hungarian PreO, there were 35 controls (although one was voided) with many being some considerable distance from the track. Three competitors, including Tom Dobra, correctly identified all 34 controls and they were therefore separated by their times at the Timed Ccontrols (TCs). All three made one error at the two TCs - and they were all different errors. Antti Rusanen (FIN) was fastest taking just 45 seconds with Tom second in 53 seconds and Jonatán Furucz (SVK) third in 56 seconds - all with the addition of the 60 second penalty. An excellent result for Tom!
Today there was a TempO competition involving 9 stations with a mixture of complext crags and boulder clusters (at stations 1-6) and some flatter terrain with less complex terrain (at stations 7-9). Based on results, the skills needed for TempO certainly favour younger competitors. The top 5 in this competition ranged in age from just 16 (Jonatán Furucz (SVK)) to 31 (Maciej Urbaniak (POL)). The winner at this event was Simone Frascaroli (ITA) (aged 19) who made only 3 mistakes over the 9 stations. Second was Ben Kyd who, although quicker than Simone, made 6 mistakes. An excellent results for Ben!
Overall, the weekend provided an intensive TrailO experience and suggests that competitors at the WTOC next year will get quite a varied set of events ranging from the open scrub land found in Hungary to the wooded crags and quarries in Slovakia. For those selected next year, it will have been useful experience.
Tom Dobra and Ben Kyd collecting their prizes at the PreWTOC weekend.
Entries are now open for the British Autumn TrailO Weekend in October.
Berkshire Orienteers (BKO) are providing a PreO event on Saturday 12th October at Burnham Beeches, near Slough. This will have both a Championship Class (for the British TrailO Championship (BTOC) PreO) and an A Class (designed for those wanting less challenging controls). On Sunday 13th October, we move to the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading. Here there will be both a TempO event and a PreO Sprint. The TempO will have both a Championship Class (for the BTOC TempO) and an A Class. The PreO Sprint is a single class.
For more details, see the Preliminary Details document on the BKO site at: Preliminary Event Details. To enter, go to the Racesignup page: Racesignup - Autumn TrailO Weekend. Pre-entries close: 23:59 on Sunday 6th October 2024.
This year's British TrailO Championships will be staged in the south of England. There will be two main events:
In addition to the two main Championship events, it is hoped to also stage a PreO Sprint competition.
Some further details can be found on this site's BTOC page along with links to the event pages on the Berkshire Orienteers website. However, the areas are subject to an embargo for anyone wishing to be competitive in the Championships. For the embargo locations, see: Embargoed areas
The 2024 European TrailO Championships (ETOC 2024) finished today with the TempO heats and final. The best 18 from each of the two morning heats provide the 36 competitors for the afternoon final. It has always been a challenge for GBR team members to qualify for the final given the strength in depth of the TrailO enthusiasts from Scandinavia and Central Europe.
On completion of the heats, Tom Dobra (TVOC) was in 18th place in Heat A and the only GBR member to gain a Final place. Due to an organiser’s problem at one station it was voided. This led to the bottom two, including Tom, to drop 2 places. A subsequent official ‘protest’ was lodged and the event jury determined that the kite had not been positioned in the expected position. The conclusion was that, given the error, 20 should qualify for the final from that heat – giving Tom an opportunity to go through.
Although the other GBR members did not make the final, Kieran Marsh (SLOW) gave a creditable first Championship performance by being our best result in Heat B with 42nd place.
In the Final, televised by IOF for the first time, Tom started first and progressed through the 9 stations, each with 5 tasks, situated around the Paavo Nurmi Stadium in Turku. With complex and varied tasks at each station, Tom successfully got 5 stations completely correct but completed the course with 5 errors. Ultimately, he finished in 34th place with Lauri Makinen (FIN) winning in a fast time and with only 2 errors. Second equal, just 5.5 seconds behind, were Petteri Hakala (FIN) and Simon Marecek (CZE).
For photos of GBR members in action, see the Flickr album: at: European TailO Championships 2024. For more detailed results, see the event website at: https://tume.fi/etoc2024/
Tom Dobra in action at the ETOC 2024 TempO Final.