SE Middle Distance Champs 2024

COVID-19
There are no longer any formal restrictions around Covid-19. However we encourage you not to attend if you or a member of your household has Covid-19 symptoms.

Please make yourself aware of the British Orienteering Participant Code of Conduct (revised August 2021). By entering the event you have agreed to abide by it.

The area is used for walking and horse riding and cycling. Be courteous towards other users you do encounter, especially those with dogs and horse riders – our future use of these areas depends on this.

Car parking is limited
Please do not arrive before 9am. The car parking is at Newlands Corner (nearest post code GU4 8SE). Not in the public car park but through it at the far end in an overflow area. What3words: ///mats.stuff.slides.

Space is limited, please share transport or travel car-less. We ask for car information when you enter - please be accurate.

Please share cars!

Dogs
Dogs allowed under control in the car park and Assembly area but not on the courses please.

What is near the car park
The Enquiries/Dibber hire/Download tent is 20 metres from the far end of the car park. It has a car key drop and First Aid facilities. It also offers cash Entry On the Day until 11am if there are any maps available to sell. Online entry at Racesignup will continue to be available till 11am.

There is a cafe and toilets by the Newlands Corner public car park.

Warm-up area
You can warm up on the south facing open field hillside on the south side of the public car park (opposite side to the cafe and toilets).

Start and Finish
The Start is a level 350 metre walk from the car park or the Enquiries/Dibber hire tent. From the Finish it is 40 metres to the Download tent, which is 20 metres from the far end of the car park.

Start times are not fixed (punching start)
You will have chosen a start time. To avoid bottlenecks at the Start please arrive there for the time you have chosen, but once there we will start you on a first-come-first-served basis. Listed start times will not be checked.

All must punch the Start, including SIAC (contactless) dibbers. All other controls (except the Finish) are enabled for SIAC 'swiping'. It is your responsibility to check your SI card has registered at each control. In case of SI failure use the pin-punch on the control stake to mark your map.

Take care of your hired dibber. It will cost you £69 to replace a SIAC if lost (or £20 for a normal one).

Maps and control descriptions
All courses have an A4 sized map (1:5000) printed on waterproof paper. Control descriptions are printed on the map and available separately (loose) in the start lanes. They use pictorial 2024 Standard symbols. White and Yellow courses have text descriptions.

At the Finish
All must punch the Finish, including SIAC (contactless) dibbers.
Download promptly even if you have not completed the course.
Maps will NOT be collected. Please keep to the spirit of the event by not showing your map to those competitors who have yet to start.

Courses close at 1:30pm. By which time you must have downloaded to avoid us sending out a search party for you.

A festive note
This event has some “Festive Special” character. On the one hand, the Controller has stipulated a “No tinsel٭: No go” start rule (for “Elf-and-Safety” reasons, you understand). On the other hand, your SE Middles course should require some serious thought: expect short butterfly loops, closely-spaced controls and rapid changes of direction on a 1:5000 scale map.
٭tinsel or a similar nod to seasonal tradition

Planner's notes
Most of the competition area occupies the northern wooded slope of an East/West ridge. Runnability changes rapidly from white open to varying patches of green, with many mapped vegetation boundaries. Some parts have extensive brambles: these are largely impenetrable but laced with mapped paths.

A special character of Newlands Corner is the giant elderly yews, possibly the largest concentration in the world. Some are estimated to be up to 1000 years old. But many of them are now not in a good way; the causes are unclear but it’s a good bet that global heating is one. As orienteers we have a particular responsibility, to minimise footfall close to the trees to prevent damage to the roots. Planning of the event has taken this into account - for a few “prominent tree” control sites the kite is hung several metres away (so the mapped control circle is displaced).

The largest yews (and some other particularly large trees) are mapped with the large prominent tree symbol, smaller ones with the smaller prominent tree/bush symbol. Some controls are on the canopy edge which, due to layering, can be a circular wall of drooping branches, mapped as a vegetation boundary.

SE Championships Eligibility
You can enter any course, but to be eligible for Championship medals you must enter the Championship Age Class matching your age and sex, or 'run up'. Eligibility also requires that you are a member of British Orienteering and a member of the South East Orienteering Association (SEOA). Medals are awarded to the fastest 3 eligible runners in each Championship Age Class.

Running up
M class competitors can only run up to M class courses.
W class competitors may run up to W or M class courses.
Competitors in age classes from 10 to 18 may run up to an older age class (up to 20-40).
Competitors in age classes from 45 to 80+ may run up to a younger age class (down to 20-40).
When you run up you are not competing in your 'own' age class.

Results and Medals
Provisional results will be available on this web page: click here to view or copy link address.

Final results will be on the Guildford Orienteers website after the event.

Medals will be awarded on the day at 1pm (or as soon after that as we can if the results are still in doubt at 1pm).

Medical conditions
Competitors take part at their own risk. If you have an existing Medical Condition of which the Organisers should be aware, please complete a Medical Form which can be downloaded from the British Orienteering website and hand in at Download/Enquiries in a sealed envelope marked with your name and "Confidential Medical Form for GO 22/12/24 event only". This will be opened only if you require medical treatment and are not conscious. It will be destroyed at the end of the event.

Ash dieback
The woods have been quite affected by ash dieback. BO recommends you arrive with all kit, especially footwear, fully cleaned since its last outing; after your run, put all your kit in a plastic bag to prevent spreading fungal spores.

SAFETY
Dress appropriately for the expected weather, bearing in mind that in the event of an accident you may be stationary for a few hours. Full cover leg protection is required. There may be ticks – please check yourself carefully after the race. Note that in bad weather cagoules may be made compulsory.

It is strongly recommended that you carry a whistle.

Safety bearing if you get lost is to head south to the top of the ridge and follow the ridge path/track east to the car park.

Maps are overprinted with an emergency phone number which can be used on the day to contact the Organiser for emergencies.

Nearest A&E is Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford. There is a map at Download. There is also First Aid at Download.