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.
Today the GBR Team took part in the second World Ranking Event being staged as part of the European TrailO Champs (ETOC) Warmup series. It was another PreO event with 24 controls over a shorter course, about 700m. After yesterday’s challenging set of controls, today used a more open forest allowing a better opportunity to match the contours to the shape of the ground. Today there were 8 competitors who correctly identified all 24 controls with Antti Rusanen (FIN) taking the first spot with very fast and accurate responses at the two time controls.
For the British team, today Charles Bromley Gardner (BAOC) (35th) took our top spot with 22 correct. Also with 22 correct were John Kewley (MDOC)(44th) and Ian Ditchfield (MV)(50th).
Tomorrow will see a final ‘warmup’ event before all competitors assemble for the Opening Ceremony of ETOC 2024 here in Turku.
Today photo shows the GBR team with one of the GBR Team Selectors (Clive Allen) before tackling today’s course.
Back row: John Kewley (MDOC), Clive Allen (Selector), Graham Urquhart (OD), Peter Roberts (EBOR), Christine Roberts (EBOR), David Jukes (BKO).
Front Row: Charles Bromley Gardner (BAOC), Ian Ditchfield (MV), Elizabeth Urquhart (OD/Team Manager), Colin Duckworth (TVOC), Tom Dobra (TVOC) and Kieran Marsh (SLOW).
As part of the ETOC Warmup programme in Finland, today saw the GBR team tackle a 30 control PreO course with a 1.35 km route. It used typical Finnish terrain (see the image extract belwo showing Part 1 with 11 controls) although the visibility to some of the controls made identifying the correct flag a tough challenge at times. The top 3 competitors succeeded in getting 26 correct; the top GBR members getting 21 correct were David Jukes (BKO)(54th) and Kieran Marsh (SLOW)(58th) separated by their times at the 2 Time Controls. Next was John Kewley (MDOC)(80th) with 19 correct.
It can be noted that this is Kieran’s first experience of a TrailO competition outside the UK. His result today suggests that he is showing good promise for the future.
For the full results, see: ETOC Warmup PreO 1 Results
The GBR team for the European TrailO Championships (ETOC) arrived in Turku, Finland, today. The local clubs have provided several opportunities to tackle the terrain with several ‘ETOC Warmup’ events. For this evening, this was a PreO Sprint event with 20 A-Z controls set out along a rocky hillside adjacent to a main road in Turku. The terrain was complex with a good variety of challenges as can be seen from the map extract below. Competitors were ranked by the number correct but then the tie-break was on the time taken. With a 30 minute time limit, quick decisions were needed.
With just over 100 competitors, for the GBR team, the results were generally positive with 5 members in the top 20. There were two competitors getting all 20 correct but both Tom Dobra (TVOC) (7th) and David Jukes (BKO) (8th) got 19 correct with Tom having the quicker time. John Kewley (MDOC) (15th), Colin Duckworth (TVOC) (16th) and Charles Bromley Gardner (BAOC) (18th) all had 18 correct to complete the leading group.
The event was a prelude to tomorrow and Monday's PreO events which are both World Ranking Events (WRE) and European Cup in TrailO (ECTO) events. Another PreO event on Tuesday will provide a final opportunity to experience the Finnish terrain before the ETOC Opening Ceremony on Tuesday evening.
For more details of the warmup events, see: ETOC Warmup Events. For the PreO Sprint results, see: ETOC Warmup Sprint Results.
A regular feature in the annual calendar of World Ranking TrailO events is the Falco Cup held in different cities around Lithuania. This year’s event was staged in Alytus in the south of the country. All World Ranking events appoint a qualified Event Advisor to assess the proposed courses in advance and, this year, Graham Urquhart acted in this capacity. It was the first time he had taken on this role which involved a trip out to Lithuania earlier in the year to discuss the proposed courses.
The weekend consisted of an initial PreO course on the Friday afternoon, a WRE TempO event on Saturday followed by a PreO Sprint, and concluded with a second PreO course (also WRE) on Sunday morning.
Results for the four events included some top 10 positions. Iain Philips managed a 7th position in the PreO Sprint while John Kewley came 9th in PreO1, 10th in TempO-WRE, 8th in PreO Sprint and 2nd in PreO2-WRE. This meant he was awarded a medal for 3rd in the Combined PreO and a trophy for 3rd equal overall for the weekend.
For full results, maps and photos, see the Falco Cup webpage.
Job done!. Graham Urquhart (right), Event Advisor, is thanked by the Competition Director, Andrius Jovaiša
As a part of the governance structure of the IOF there are four Athletes’ Advisory Groups (AAGs), one for each orienteering discipline. The Groups represent the voice and interests of athletes by engaging in decision-making processes within the IOF organization and to empower athletes through the communication of information. The Groups are elected for a two-year term by orienteers who have competed at an international level in regional or world championships in each discipline.
Elections have recently been held for the new two-year term which starts in May. Each AAG should have a minimum of 4 members and a maximum of 6 members. The groups should, in theory, also have one or more members from outside Europe and at least two of each gender – but that requires appropriate people to stand for election. Results have been announced today. In the TrailO election, 5 people stood and they all got sufficient votes to be elected to the Group. These include John Kewley from GBR. The full list (with their votes and % votes) is the following:
Each AAG will also now elect two representatives from their Group to form an Athletes Commission (AC).
Have you wondered what is involved in putting on a TrailO event? Does the idea seem too difficult? With limited events, it can be difficult to work out what to do – but without people trying in the first place, the number of events remains limited. One way to solve this conundrum is to provide better advice and guidance.
And this is why there are some new ‘Supporting TrailO’ leaflets now available. Experienced TrailO competitor, Clive Allen, has redrafted some former guidance and fully updated it. There are now 4 leaflets providing many suggestions and they are illustrated with photos and images. These are designed primarily to support organisers and planners of foot orienteering events or training activities who may like to also offer some TrailO.
The leaflets have the following titles:
These can be downloaded as pdf files from the ‘Staging small TrailO events’ page. More leaflets are planned for the future.
