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Loch OrdieSun 15 May

Scottish Orienteering League (SOL)

Last updated: Wed 21 February, 2024

National level event

Terrain type: Moorland

Results

Results and splits

Officials' Reports

THANK YOU FROM THE ORGANISERS: Thank you very much to everyone who came to the SOL at Loch Ordie today Hopefully, as well as enjoying an interesting run on good courses in a challenging area, you also enjoyed the great views along the strath. And the weather was good too!

Thanks are due to Atholl Estates for permission to use the area, Mr Menzies of Baledmund for use of the car park field, Mr Brewster of Rothmell for help in the area help with fences and gates, David Ritchie, A4 Design & Print who printed the maps, and STAG for lending us kit.

As requested by Mr Menzies his fee for use of his land for parking and assembly is being donated to The Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution. The fee was agreed as £1 per competitor so a donation of £303 will be made.

Last, but by no means least, a big thank you to the great ESOC team of volunteers who ran the event, and to Controller Terry O’Brien from STAG.

Planner's Comments - Ewart Scott: Planning challenging courses, especially for the variety of ages and abilities who compete, is in itself, a significant challenge. Whilst having had a glance at Routegadget, the route choices and mistakes, it’s evident from winning times in some courses, course lengths should have received a little more consideration. Many thanks for the positive comments, to Terry O’Brien, and to Anne Thom plus the ESOC team.

Controller's Report - Terry O'Brien BEM, STAG: Working with ESOC's SOL 3 Team was a real pleasure. Anne covered the organising with support from a members of her Family and ESOC Members but special credit and kudos must be given to Ewart who, now having relocated to Inverness, undertook the immense challenges of planning a SOL so very well done to Ewart for his dedication and industry. Many competitors expressed their thanks for their course which I passed on to Ewart. Thanks also to TAY for use of the Loch Ordie map.

I do wonder who will read this report and most likely the participants who didn't read the final details won't. Several cars ignored the request to travel via Ballinluig and one car attended with dogs which was clearly stated as not being permitted. I am aware of others who did not enter respecting this condition.

This particularly puts The Organiser in a truly difficult position but I cannot offer any solution as to how such can be avoided for future events. It needs to be understood that if you enter any or all orienteering races that your entry is only acceptable on the understanding that final details are read and fully observed.

Courses were based on S6D 2009 and TAY SoSOL results but with hindsight I forgot that due to a different time of year and no bracken problem that speed per km would be slightly faster so most courses could have been a tad longer but then again the weather was incredibly kind today.

Loch Ordie is a fine area for TD5 courses but to truly maximise these we would have had to walk competitors much further to a higher Start and probably have to have an isolated Finish but this just wasn't a viable or sensible option. I cannot help thinking that at SOLs we have too many courses for too few competitors -

Black (15) - Brown (19) - Short Brown (37) - Blue (42) - Short Blue (30) - Green (43) - Short Green (46) - Light Green (21) - Orange (13) - Yellow (4) - White (0). Black was introduced many years ago as it was requested by SEDS but the uptake has never been numerically large.

Just as the S6D Course combinations were rationalised for Lochaber 2021, I feel that the time may be right to review the SOL Rules and Guidelines and reduce the 11 courses to a more realistic / manageable number which may also encourage others to take on the role of the Planner and our sport badly needs more volunteers in this area.

For many, many years I have admired those amongst our O Community who truly excel at our sport and represent Scotland and or Great Britain. To meet their needs I suggest that these individuals should be using SOLs as a true training opportunity and can't see any reason why such individuals cannot compete against fellow internationalists at a level currently above their assigned Age Class e.g. Short Blue is listed for M65L so why can't M65 Internationalists run Blue? My understanding is that the SI Timing system can cope with this additional class.

In terms of the other courses -TD1 White (0 entries - 0 attended) and TD2 Yellow (7 entries - 4 attended) were very, very limited in where they could go.

TD3 Orange and TD4 were even more difficult to achieve and had to err on the shorter side to fulfill the technical aspects as the leading times show.

Can I also take this opportunity to apologise for the wording which I asked ESOC to add to the final details regarding ' full-body cover'. This was fuelled by my recent experience at Dundurn where I had to deal with the aftermath of ticks which I incorrectly put down primarily to my clothing i.e. breeches not trousers.
Wearing 'full-body cover' may reduce the possibility but it certainly doesn't prevent these little insects attaching themselves to people.

I should have advised competitors to check their person and not insist on such clothing requirements. Thanks JT :).

Thank-you for your support and I hope you had an enjoyable orienteering experience today.

Kind regards
Terry

Winsplits are here

Routegadget here

Message from the Organiser, Controller's Report and Planner's Comments added - click on Read more

Location Info

Near: Dunkeld
Lat,Lng: 56.62653,-3.62210
OS Grid Ref: NO004494
Postcode: PH9 0NX

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Contacts / Officials

Planner: Ewart Scott (ESOC)

Controller: Terry O'Brien BEM (STAG)

Organiser: Anne Thom (ESOC) (with Margaret Dalgleish (ESOC) providing physical and driving support). For urgent enquiries in advance of the event use this email.

Nearest A&E Hospital