UKOL & SEOULChichester UrbanSat 02 November, 2019

The Cathedral from Bishop's Palace Gardens

The Cathedral from Bishop's Palace Gardens

Near: Chichester
Level of event: Regional
Type of event: Race, Urban

Results

Report

Final results and Winsplits posted. Routegadget, BOF and league results updates in progress. Planner and Organiser's comments follow on below.

Planner’s Comments

It was a genuine privilege to be the first to plan on Mike Gammon’s wonderful new map and to show off the the lovely city, Chichester, that I’ve got to know intimately over past few months! I hope you enjoyed the dramatic start through the City Walls and the courses themselves.
I tried to create as much route choice as possible, with most legs having more than one reasonable option and the early downloads on RouteGadget seem to show that lots of different options were indeed taken. Always pleasing to see as a planner.
The weather was, of course, truly awful and probably the worst 4 hours of conditions we’ve had in the last 6 months! Well done to all of you who cheerily braved the conditions on Saturday, both competitors and helpers.
As you’ll see from the results, we’ve declared a number of people as non-competitive for taking the short cut over the blown down fence to control 117. The fence was intact when I activated the control earlier in the morning, but unfortunately the strong winds brought the fence down sometime later and made an uncrossable boundary, crossable on the ground. However, whether a boundary is legitimately crossable or not, is defined by the map, not by whether it is in fact possible to cross at the time.

We declared people who took the wrong route to 117 as non-competitive, rather than DSQ for a few reasons...
• if you need to cross over an 8 foot high fallen down fence panel, then that route was clearly meant to be uncrossable...and a careful check of the map would have confirmed that
• recognising the weather and the unfortunate coincidence of an uncrossable route suddenly being made crossable on the ground, then voiding the leg was discussed. However, the top 10 all went the “right” way, albeit some made errors early in the leg...so by voiding it would have rearranged the leading results which we felt wasn’t fair
• so, by identifying individuals with unfeasibly fast times (or those who have come forward themselves) we hope that it gives the message to please take more care next time (it jeopardises future access). However, given the weather and circumstances, n/c feels a better resolution than DSQ. I hope you understand and agree.
The 3 competitors who forced their way through the uncrossable hedge a little later were guilty of a much more serious transgression and have been DSQ-ed. Rather than opportunistically taking advantage of damage to cross a mapped uncrossable boundary, they created damage get through a boundary that none of us had thought was actually crossable. If your actions had been spotted by local residents, we’d really have been in trouble with regards access for any future events in the city.
Finally, on a much more positive note, a huge thank you from me to Jan and Kieran, Organiser and Controller for the event, who both played a huge role in making the day happen, supported as ever by a superb and experienced team of helpers from SO.

Kenny

Organisers Comments

My thanks to all competitors for turning up in such dire weather conditions. The wind and rain posed a challenge for those of us setting up and running the event as well as the competitors. Barriers were blown over, signs were blown about and made difficult to read, and the tapes to the starts just stuck to fences and got wrapped around trees rather than flapping about in the wind. Thank goodness the toilets stayed upright! Everything was wet and the club tent nearly flew into the stream on a number of occasions. Sadly, Ultrasport decided not to attend due to the risk of losing their awning in the high winds, they sent their apologies. Tom and Julie did us proud, as ever, with some hot drinks and food which saved everyone from heading back into town for much needed warmth and nourishment. We realise that the weather conditions made map reading difficult and this may have led to some errors in judgement when taking a route between controls. However, the name of the game is reading the map correctly and abiding by the rules set by the map. Kenny explains in his report how we came to the final decisions on what to do with competitors taking illegal routes. Thank you to all those who came forward to admit they had been at fault. My thanks to Kenny for planning some great courses, we’ve had some wonderful positive feedback on this, and to Kieran Devine for controlling. I was struggling to gather helpers for this event but those who volunteered went above and beyond the call of duty, doing extra tasks wherever help was needed. My sincere thanks to all of you.

Jan

RouteGadget

Is a web app for sharing and comparing orienteering routes. You can draw your own route or upload a GPS track from your watch. It also allows you to watch an animated replay with a simulated mass start.

Pre event info

Come and enjoy a weekend of orienteering in Sussex and Hampshire. The Chichester Urban is being held as the second event of the “November Classic Weekend”. The historic Cathedral City of Chichester plays host to a high energy urban Orienteering race, which is part of the UK Orienteering League (UKOL) and Southern England Orienteering Urban League (or SEOUL). You will find some charming runs through flagstone courtyards and footpaths, as well as beautifully tended parks. Pre-entry through Fabian4 by midnight on 30th October, 2019. FINAL DETAILS.

On Friday 1st November there is a night urban event in Southsea hosted by BAOC, part of the Wessex Region Night League and of course of Sunday there is the pinnacle event of the weekend, the 52nd November Classic hosted by SOC.

Location Info

Nearest town: Chichester

* Postcodes are not very precise in some areas, so don't rely on them for an exact location.

Directions / Parking

Car parking will be in Chichester College Car Park, postcode PO19 1SB. SU851047 Lat/Lon +50.83527 -0.792283

The event will be signed from the A259 (Fishbourne) roundabout on the A27, south of Chichester.

From the roundabout head north on the A259 into Chichester. At the next roundabout take the second turning left into the college car park. The main car park will be on the left after you have turned into the access road. The overflow car park will be the large one to the right. Pay machines will be disabled for the day.

Public Transport

The nearest train station is Chichester, 1.2km east of the event.

Course Information

Courses are planned according to BOF guidelines for Urban course planning Appendix B 11.6.

Please note your course number to ensure that you pick up the correct map on starting. Due to the complex nature of the competition area, the actual running distance will be significantly greater than the straight-line distance in the table below. Expect actual running distances of c.+60-70% for Courses 1-3 and c.+30-40% for Courses 4-7.

Course 1: Black 6.4km 30m climb M18+
Course 2: Brown 5.8km 30m climb M40+ W18+
Course 3: Blue 4.7km 20m climb M55+ W40+
Course 4: Green 4.4km 20m climb M65+ W55+
Course 5: Short Green 3.7km 20m climb M75+ W65+/W75+
Course 6: Light Green 2.2km 10m climb M16- W16-
Course 7: Yellow 1.3km 10m climb M12- W12-

Both junior courses are shorter than recommended due to safety requirements. Nonetheless the usual care will be needed when crossing any road. Those responsible for juniors and children should make sure that their charges know the map and control descriptions for urban features. Courses 6 and 7 are centred around the college campus.

Scoring is the same scoring system as the UK Urban League. The latest league tables and the SEOUL Facebook page are here.

Entry Details

Pre-enter through Fabian4

From 24/10/19 until midnight on 30/10/19

Seniors: SO and BOF members £12 others £13.

Entry on the day (subject to map availability)

Seniors: SO and BOF members £13 others £14.

Juniors throughout: SO free, others £3; SIAC dibber hire £2 others £1. Additional maps £0.50.

Entry fees will include the Parking fee for the Chichester College Car Park. The machines in the car park will be shut down for the day.

Registration

Entry on the day, subject to availability from 10:00 to 12:00 in the blue tent.

Start Times

From 10:30 to 12:30. Courses close 14:30.

Map Details

1:5,000 with 2m contours. Within the city walls mapping by Mike Gammon March 2015, updated 2019 by Simon Thraves. Rest of map by Mike Gammon August 2019.

Terrain Description

Footpaths, parks, residential and retail areas, college and university campuses.

Facilities

Ultrasport Orienteering Equipment shop will be set up.

Tom's Catering will be at the event for hot food, cakes and drinks.

There are also plenty of places to eat and drink within a short distance from the event centre.

Miscellaneous

Courses will be through public, residential, and college/university campus areas. Please be mindful of this as there will be pedestrians, dog walkers, cyclists, other sports events, and vehicles.

There will be road crossings for the more senior courses so competitors must take care when crossing roads.

Chichester has a wealth of attractions and eateries. This useful visitor map will point you in the right direction.

Contacts / Officials

Planner: Kenny Leitch

Organiser: Jan Ireland 07866 965928 jannion@me.com

Controller: Kieren Devine

Photo Gallery

click/tap photos for a larger version

College Grounds

College Grounds

Front of the College

Front of the College

Priory Park

Priory Park

One of many watering holes

One of many watering holes

One of many watering holes

One of many watering holes

The Cross

The Cross

Cathedral Cloisters

Cathedral Cloisters