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Junior Regional
Orienteering Squads

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Generic information about Gothenburg

Introduction and background

The ‘Gothenburg’ tour is unique in that its purpose is to teach those about to leave the ranks of junior orienteers, ie M/W20’s, how to plan and undertake their own training within a Scandinavian environment.

Such a tour was conceived specifically as a ‘self-help’ tour led by a Senior Coach experienced in training in Scandinavian terrain and familiar with a specific location or orienteering club.

This style of tour was initially suggested and led by Mark Saunders in 2012.
Because of his knowledge and experience of orienteering in the Gothenburg area the camp that year was based in that city.

The location of future camps will therefore be decided by the Coach who is leading the tour, their experience and contacts.

Accommodation

Accommodation is dependent upon the location but is likely to be in an Orienteering Club hut.
It is therefore likely that sleeping will be on a floor but that showers and toilets will be close by.
All food will be bought and prepared by the attendees and therefore athletes will be expected to assist with chores during the camp.

It is anticipated that every effort will be made to make use of public transport throughout the course of the camp.

Attendees

The camp is aimed at M/W20’s, and if room permits some M/W18’s.
It is likely that the camp will take place in August and recognising that the athletes may wish to return home at various times, for example for ‘A’ level results, attendance at the camp will be flexible allowing athletes to join and leave the camp at various times other than the planned start and finish.

Team Manager’s Report

Download report as a PDF

Venue: Savedalens AIK Club Hutte, Partille, Gothenburg. Gothenburg Staff: Richard Tiley & Rachel Ashton Gothenburg Athletes

Frances Brown Michael Adams
Hannah Cleary-Hughes Dane Blomquist
Hannah Cox Sasha Cheplin
Katrina Hemingway Alastair Masson
Helen Ockenden Tim Morgan
Jennifer Ricketts William Rigg
Alice Rigby Daniel Stansfield

Joe Woodley, Alistair Thornton & Matthew Galloway were selected but withdrew.

Fran Brown (selection results collation), Katrina Hemingway (transport guru), Michael Adams (entry secretary) & Dane Blomquist (maps & training) were all being invited back for a second time on the basis that they shared some of the tour jobs.

Travel

All athletes made their own arrangements to get to Sweden. As in previous years the athletes made use of the extensive bus network there being a bus stop within 200m of the hutte. We only booked one car and it was used for trips to collect shopping, a trip to the hospital and in collecting & returning the athletes to the airport.

Accommodation and Catering

The athletes formed themselves into four groups and shared the cooking and clearing up. The cooking was uninspiring and on a couple of days Rachel stepped in to both suggest what might be cooked and to help deliver in the kitchen. Bringing along a chef in the future might be something to consider.

The boys camped out in the main room in the hut, and the girls in the additional office room. The only additional “private” space for the adults was a small partitioned area at the end of the mens shower room adjacent to the girls room. This proved to be a challenge in that adult bed time was dictated by when the girls decided to settle down.

Training

The hut sits on the edge of two very large technical areas (WMOC 2015), plus being the home for JWOC 2008. In addition there is the “Hittaut Nu” Swedish health initiative maps together with some maps from previous tours. There are over 15 Orienteering Clubs in the Gothenburg region (Goteborg-Majorna, IFK Gothenburg, Gothenburg OL, etc) and by translating their websites I was able to identify other training opportunities.

Both Dane & Will Rigg had planned some exercises on the adjacent areas, and mindful that three of the athletes had been selected to run JEC in October I had planned a “tour champs” race on 1:15000 maps.

Programme and Logistics

Athletes who arrived early spent the first afternoon training in a local area. I had already identified an activity being put on by a neighbouring club for Sunday morning. The athletes were told on Saturday evening that they were to sort out their own program but after 24 hours without any discussion I then instigated the debate on Sunday evening. There was SAIK Club training on Tuesday evening, a day was needed for tour champs, and there were local races on Saturday (Middle) and Sunday (Relay) to attend. The athletes then constructed a framework for the rest of the week.

Saturday – PM - Rahult. O-Intervals planned by Will. Sunday – AM - Jonserud. Compass work on 1:15000 map by Gothenburg OL.

Sunday – PM – Stora Kasjon. Control Pick planned by Dane. Monday – AM – Lilla Kasjon. Trains exercise planned by Dane.

Monday – PM – Partille (urban). Sprint intervals from previous weeks SAIK training. Tuesday – AM - Stora Kasjon. Control Picks planned by Dane.

Tuesday – Eve – Stora Kasjon. SAIK club relay training.

Wednesday – AM – Chalmers Uni. JWOC2008 courses at Uni & Botanic Gardens in centre of Gothenburg. Wednesday – Eve – Gothenburg. Evening out.

Thursday – AM - Stora Kasjon. Tour Champs. Thursday – PM - SAIK Hut. Sleeping.

Friday – AM - Stora Kasjon. Revisit/rerun legs on Tour Champs. Friday – PM - SAIK Hut. Sleeping. Friday – Eve – Partille. Maria Magnussen (SAIK Elite coach) core session.

Saturday – AM – North Gothenburg. Middle race. Saturday – PM – SAIK Hut. Sleeping.

Sunday – AM - West Gothenburg. Relay race. Sunday – PM – SAIK Hut. Sleeping. Sunday – Eve – Gothenburg. Evening out.

Monday – Disperse

Comments

There are some advantages to holding the tour based on the SAIK hut, but there are also some challenges. The hut is based adjacent to some great forests, next to a lake for swimming and the public transport infrastructure makes moving around the city very easy.

The drawbacks are the limited privacy (with related poor sleep patterns) afforded to the adults and the food to recharge the batteries can be very bland.

The biggest challenge is attempting to devolve control to the athletes whilst still retaining ultimate responsibility. One missing link from the 2015 tour was not having any peer athletes (like Ralph & Kris in 2014) who can act as mentors to the more inexperienced athletes. There was little post exercise feedback or discussion in the hut.

The other issue to consider is the timing of the tour. Many of the athletes had not been at home for a month (combination of their own holidays, O-Ringen, helping Lagganlia, helping Deeside, attending Cairngorm, Scottish 6-Days & Pre-JWOC Switzerland). Two athletes turned up with injuries and several were complaining of fatigue and advised to sit out sessions within 48 hours of arrival.

My perception was that for some the main summer focus had been (say) Scottish 6- Days and Pre-JWOC Switzerland so that Gothenburg was treated as an orienteering holiday with some training & racing rather than a focussed training camp.

Should camp be aimed at JWOC athletes? Should camp be earlier in the summer? What is camp aiming to achieve?

Accounts

JROS had kindly provided a grant of £70 per athlete. I acted as banker for the tour which turned out to be very cheap.

Rachel & I had been out in Sweden for a week before joining up with the athletes and so I only charged to the tour less than half the cost of the hire car.

I took out for each athlete, a blank A3 map of Rahult & another of Stora Kasjon, plus two sets of exercises I had planned (but were not used), plus the exercises Will Rigg had planned, plus the tour champs maps, plus the JWOC 2008 maps, plus the Gothenburg OL exercise plus some other exercises on Jonserud. The athletes were not short of maps. Each athlete charged £5 to cover printing costs onto waterproof paper.

Athletes entry to the two races at the end of the week was co-ordinated by Mikey Adams who made the payments to the clubs.

Costs SEK

SAIK Club Hut 3,000 Food 7,152 Car share 2,500 Hospital Car Park 94 Car Fuel 475 Map Printing 700

In addition to the grant from JROS, each athlete contributed £40 to the costs of the tour. They also paid for their own flights, race entries & bus passes.

Participant Report

Alice Rigby's report

This summer I attended the JROS Gothenburg tour along with 13 other top year M/W18s and M/W20s and had an amazing time. This tour is designed to be ‘self-help’ with the athletes planning and organising their own training as well as the shopping, cooking and cleaning. Staying at the club hut belonging to Saveldalens AIK gave us the perfect setting to do this. It is surrounded by high quality terrain and has good public transport links.

Much of the training had been planned by older members of the group and we also took advantage of some organised training. This included long training on the first Sunday, Savedalen’s club night relay simulation and the Gothenburg district championships middle and relay races on the last weekend. Transport to these was organised by Katrina and Mikey was in charge of race entries.

The rest of the time we did our own training with a rough overall plan drawn up at the beginning of the week. One morning we all went and did a gaffled trains exercise which was a really good way of testing our race pace orienteering in Scandanavian terrain. Other exercises included contour only O-intervals near the club hut and a tour champs long distance race planned and organised by Richard. On the half rest day we went into the centre of Gothenburg and ran the JWOC middle final from 2008 as well as a sprint race around Chalmers University.

In between all of this great forest experience we had time to relax. The tour involved frequent trips into Gothenburg to sightsee, have a meal out and eat ice cream. Swimming in the lakes and use of the up to 10m high diving boards (by the braver ones) also featured daily in between sessions in the forest.

Finally, I’d like to thank Richard and Rachel, the only adults to accompany us, for making this tour possible and facilitating its running. Also thank you for putting up with, at times, interesting culinary creations and late nights when frogs mysteriously arrive in the girls’ room. Thanks should also go to JROS for giving each of us a grant towards the cost of the tour which made it a very affordable as well as enjoyable 10 days of orienteering abroad.

Selections

Fran Brown FVO
Hannah Cleary Hughes LOC
Hannah Cox LEI
Katrina Hemmingway WCOC
Helen Ockenden SROC
Jennifer Ricketts MAROC
Alice Rigby CLOK

Michael Adams SYO
Dane Blomquist BAOC
Alexander Cheplin GRAMP
Matthew Galloway INT
Alistair Masson SO
Tim Morgan SOC
William Rigg LOC
Daniel Stansfield FVO
Alistair Thornton MDOC

Selection Policy

Selection policy for attendance at the Gothenburg Training camp (2015)

Date

The camp will run from 22nd - 31st August 2015

Eligibility

The Camp is predominantly for M/W19’s born in 1996 and top M/W18’s born in 1997.

Numbers

The camp will be for of the order of 18 athletes the final number being determined by the Team Manager and the Chairman of JROS.

Note that a small number of athletes who have previously attended the Gothenburg camp will be pre-selected in order to take on additional responsibilities with respect to the organisation of the camp. Apart from those, it is not expected that athletes who have been on this camp in the past will attend again.

Application for selection for this tour must in the first instance be made to the Team Manager, Mark Saunders, at

Criteria

Athletes wishing to be selected will be ordered based on the average of the best three ranking scores that they achieved under the British Orienteering ranking scheme at the following races.

Southern Championships 8th February 2015
Midland Championships 15th February 2015
JK Day 2  4th April 2015
JK Day 3  5th April 2015
British Long Distance Champs 18th April 2015
British Middle Distance Champs 10th May 2015
Scottish Champs 23rd May 2015

The tour selectors

The tour athletes will be selected by Mark Saunders (BOK) and the selections will be reviewed by the Chairman of Junior Regional Orienteering Squads (JROS).

Illness or Injury

Cases of illness or injury which may have affected an athlete’s ability to compete in one of the above selection races may be taken account of. Views of the relevant Regional Squad Coordinator will be sought in such cases.