WOC 202411-16 July, Edinburgh
The Sprint World Orienteering Championships took place in Edinburgh after many years of preparation, and was enormously successful.
Both WOC and the WOC Tour (spectator races) were very well-received, with many competitors commenting how much they had enjoyed the events. Huge numbers of Scottish orienteers were involved at all levels of the organisation, including many ESOC volunteers for the WOC events and the WOC Tour, mainly the latter.
World Orienteering Championships
The WOC events were:
- Friday 12 July
am - Individual Sprint Qualification, Leith
pm - Individual Sprint Finals, City Centre - Sunday 14 July
Sprint Relay, Riccarton campus - Tuesday 16 July
am - Knock-out Sprint Qualification, Wester Hailes
pm - Knock-out Sprint Finals, City Centre
Full details of the WOC programme, results and other information are available on the WOC 2024 website.
WOC Tour
The WOC Tour races ran alongside the WOC events and were scheduled so that competitors could spectate at the WOC events as well as running in their own races in the same areas. For further information about the WOC Tour, see the WOC Tour pages of the WOC 2024 website.
- Thursday 11 July – Warmup race, Holyrood Park
The start was high on Nether Hill, with courses snaking over Whinny Hill before returning via the grassy slopes west of Hunter’s Bog to the finish by Queens’ Drive north of Pollock Halls.
This event was also SoSOL 5, the fifth in the 2024 South of Scotland Orienteering League – for more details, including the league tables, see the SoSOL page of the East of Scotland Orienteering Association website. - Friday 12 July – Urban Sprint, Leith
The start was in the pedestrian area by the Trinity House Maritime Museum, and courses immediately led into a maze of streets and alleyways among old and new buildings in the heart of Leith, finishing on Leith Links. The youngest Junior course was entirely on Leith Links, avoiding traffic. Crawford Lindsay (ESOC) was the Controller. - Saturday 13 July – Indoor race, King’s Buildings
This race took place in the Nucleus Building, which has a complicated layout, made even more challenging by artificial barriers. Although the courses were quite short, there were some long times as competitors carefully negotiated the 3-dimensional puzzle. Roger Scrutton (ESOC) was the Controller. - Sunday 14 July – Middle Distance race, Riccarton campus
Courses were planned by Helen Bridle (ESOC), and looped around the campus, with some artificial barriers on the longer courses. The finish was indoors, on the largest synthetic pitch at the Oriam Sports Centre, and the last few controls were in a maze. - Monday 15 July – Urban Long race, Central Edinburgh
Richard Oxlade (ESOC) was the Planner. The start was in the Bayes Centre courtyard, in the University of Edinburgh’s Central Campus, and courses led swiftly into the closes and steps of the Old Town, where tourists were a handicap for many. They then turned west, continuing through the Quartermile to the finish on The Meadows. The youngest junior course stayed on The Meadows. - Tuesday 16 July – Urban Sprint, Wester Hailes
ESOC’s Martin Quirke planned the final day’s courses, with underpasses and bridges crossing the major roads and canal that dissect the area. The start was in Westburn, and the longer courses included The Calders, while others led further east, finishing at Canal View Primary School, the event centre.
There are too many results to list here – links to full results from each day, including Routegadget and other analysis, are on the WOC Tour Results page of the WOC 2024 website.
ESOC and the WOC Tour
In addition to supplying planners and controllers for the 6 WOC Tour events, (not to mention those who volunteered to help at the “elite” WOC races), ESOC supplied nearly 50 volunteers to support WOC Tour co-ordinator Lindsey Knox (RR). A small team of 8 who had volunteered for all 6 days were formed into the Start team managed by Margaret & Les Dalgleish and the rest were allocated (between 15 and 30 per day) to the TECteam (the Tour Event Centre Team) managed by Jayne MacGregor and Janet Clark who took on the Information, Registration and Enquiries duties.
Credit: Jayne MacGregor
All volunteers were issued with branded kit.
The Tour events were in a different location each day as were all the support teams, the Start teams being out in the “terrain” and the TECteam inside in the DEC (Day Event Centre) co-located with the team from SportIdent, Download, Merchandise, CompassPoint and First Aid.
The DEC would have to be open between 4-6 hours every day.
The TECteam, the format of which was based on the Information Team process, honed over many years, at the Scottish 6 Days, were responsible for
- Issuing of Bibs, Programme and Mementos (key rings) for 1200+ pre-entries
- Issuing of pre-ordered items - bus passes and souvenir programmes
- Processing Entry on the Day requests, including for members of the international squads who weren’t picked for the WOC races.
- Providing other services such as Information and Lost Property
The indoor DEC venues (supplied by WOC partners Edinburgh City Council) varied in size and suitability and there were challenges on those days when the DEC was a shared space with the WOC Tour events (in the afternoon) following a WOC “elite” race in the morning.
The best DEC venue was the South Hall in Pollock Halls on the first day (the Holyrood Warm Up race) with plenty of tables, chairs, toilets etc and enough space for 1200+ competitors to leave their bags. And on the two days this venue was used there was no sharing with the WOC team.
The most difficult day was Day 1 based in Leith Primary School, shared with the WOC team who had filled the small space (the dining room) with boxes of sandwiches & crisps etc and Hi-viz jackets and only left the building 30 minutes before the DEC was due to open. That small space had to be rapidly rearranged and was soon (almost completely) filled with competitors and their bags.
Credit: Margaret Dalgleish
The Start team meanwhile had their own issues to overcome daily, especially on Day 4 (Central Edinburgh Long Urban race and UKOL) when a skip lorry arrived to deposit a huge walk-in skip right next to the start, less than 3 minutes before the first start time.
For those that like their stats here are a few about WOC Tour events
- Total number of pre-entries – 1258 - plus ~20 EOD in total (this number limited only by the number of spare maps)
- Most popular day – Day 3 at Riccarton with 1004 pre-entries
- Most bibs issued – Day 2 at Leith - approx 500.
- Out of 1250+ bibs printed or hand-written only 14 were never collected
A longer article with more photos and anecdotes will appear in ESOC’s club newsletter Capital-O in due course
WOC EXTRA!
This was an evening social and orienteering programme throughout the week:
- Wednesday 10 July – Portobello
- Thursday 11 July – Exchange & New Town
- Friday 12 July – Meadows & Bruntsfield
- Saturday 13 July – Blackford Hill
- Sunday 14 July – Stockbridge & Dean Village
- Monday 15 July – Calton Hill
- Tuesday 16 July – Fountainbridge & West End
Walter Clark (ESOC President) reports:
"Connected to but separate from WOC and the WOC Tour, ESOC also ran the critically acclaimed and very popular (with those who attended) WOC EXTRA! informal social and orienteering programme. This involved a MapRun (short or long) course each night of the WOC week, centred around a local hostelry for the social element, and taking WOC Tourists to iconic locations in Edinburgh such as Calton Hill and Stockbridge / Dean Village. A hard core of WOC Tourists met up each night to enjoy the atmosphere of the week, with a particular highlight being the Euros final, where the Spanish contingent went crazy (in a good way)!"
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