Gothenburg 2022

Generic information about Gothenburg

Report

Managed by Mark Saunders.

Attended by

Selections

No significant issues with selection. We were able to take along all those who applied. This included five athletes who had been to “not-Gothenburg” tour in 2021.

This year we were not joined by any Elite athletes for the camp and their absence was I think missed. For example in 2018 we were joined by Sasha Chepelin and Megan Carter-Davies who trained alongside everybody else and acted as mentors to the younger athletes as well as playing their part in planning training, hanging controls etc. I think the camp works better with one or two like that as examples. But having said that I think overall this year we had a good mix of experienced and less experienced athletes with everybody supporting each other.

I had been concerned that with a lot of athletes determined to have a very full summer – O Ringen, Pre-Jwoc etc and who can blame them given the two lost Covid years – we would have some very tired athletes. But in fact that wasn’t particularly the case during the camp. One athlete delayed coming out for a couple of days to allow her to properly recover from Covid and another athlete who has had longer term health issues, was careful to pace himself. We also had one athlete who lost a couple of days due to a stomach bug.

Travel

All athletes made their own arrangements to get to Sweden. Flights to Gothenburg were more limited than previous years – in particular for Saturday arrival. For many of them it turned out easier to travel out on the Friday before. Unfortunately by the time I realised this was the case, the club hut was not available for that night so they had to arrange to stay in local hostels and the like which added to their costs. For next year I will try to provisionally book the hut for the first Friday night too.

In Sweden Alice and I hired one car – via “RentaWreck” – significantly cheaper than the normal chains, but even so, given the cost of hire cars all over Europe this year ( or so it seems) we spent more than we have in the past. Fortunately that was offset to some extent by an offer from the local public transport system which enabled somebody with an Adult 24 or 72 hour pass to have 3 “youths” travel with them for free.

For the event for the second Saturday Lina Strand came up trumps and arranged for us to borrow the Gothenburg regional Association’s 9 seater – no charge ! - which along with being able to sort a lift for 3 of the other athletes, saved what might have been some very difficult logistics getting to an area quite out in the sticks - no busses until later in the morning etc. I am always bowled over by how helpful all the local orienteers are. Once we had seen how early the start times were (not just us, but everyone), things were looking quite tricky. One post on a local facebook group which we were directed to, and within a couple of hours we were all sorted.

Accommodation

We again stayed in the Savedalens AIK club hut on the outskirts of Gothenburg, this is ideal for our needs. There is plenty of forest right on the door step plus a nice lake for swimming etc – and very warm this year! The club were again very friendly and didn’t seem put out by the mess all of us “camping” in their hut inevitably made – “it is normal….”.

The club held a trail race in the local forest on the day we went to the far away event, but we were able to help them out by collecting all the course markings - a LOT of tape – the following day which they were very grateful for and earned us a lot of bananas !

Catering

This was done by the athletes themselves which worked well without any dramas. In general the food was good - perhaps not as economic as previous years, but that was the youngsters choice

Training

There is plenty of fantastic training in the forests around Savedalens club hut – 3 we were able to run to/from the actual hut. Others were just a short bus trip away.

Sam, Frank and Joe had planned a few days worth of training before we arrived which I had printed. And other training was planned in the evenings. The athletes took it in turns to hang controls.

Ben Kyd planned a Trail O exercise for us all on the Tuesday morning which seemed to be enjoyed by everyone as a bit of a different challenge.

The usual Tuesday club night training was this year an interval session which about half our athletes joined in and pronounced a good session, others opted for some more orienteering training

The weather was so great that we made an expedition to the Southern Archipeligo – which now has a “Hitta Ut” orienteering map ( or rather maps – one for each island) - thank you again Lina Strand for sorting the maps . That evening on the way back we joined some Gothenburg based elite orienteers in a session on a superb area to the south of Gothenburg. It made for a long but worthwhile day out.

Competition

The first Sunday we took part in day 3 of the Gothenburg O Meeting - 40 minute bus journey away. The second Saturday we took part in the “Pepparkaksluffen” - Outstanding performer was Euan Tryner with a first and second place.

Illness/injury

One athlete picked up some sort of stomach bug and spent a day being sick. I am glad to say, that didn’t spread to the others.

Financial Summary

Which meant that most of the youngsters paid about £105 on top of their flight costs.

Feedback

We received some nice notes of thanks about what “great tour“ it was. From my point of view it was a fun tour to manage. There was a relaxed but purposeful atmosphere to the whole camp which made it an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Next year

I am available again to manage the tour as is Alice – likely dates – 25th August – 3rd September.

Mark Saunders Sept 2022

Selections

Fiona Eades INT
Alex Elliot OUOC/SYO
Maya Hampshire Wright NN
Scarlet Heap SO
Lizzie Horsler WIM
Lois Parker OUOC/CLARO
Jamie Goddard FVO
Dominic Green CLOK
Sam Griffin GRAMP
Ben Kyd MDOC
Finlay Raynor INVOC
Oscar Shepherd INVOC
Frank Townley SN
Euan Tryner SYO

Selection Policy

Eligibility

The Camp is predominantly for M/W19s born in 2003 and M/W18s born in 2004.

Athletes who have previously attended the Gothenburg camp or equivalent (e.g. the 2021 “not Gothenburg camp”) are eligible to attend again on the proviso that they will be expected to significantly help with the planning of the training and logistics prior to the camp.

If British Orienteering hold a pre-JWOC camp in August it is not expected that any athletes who are selected for that will also be selected to attend this camp.

Numbers

The camp will be for a maximum of 20 athletes

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.

British Night Champs 2022 (19th February)

British Long Distance Champs 2022 (26th March)

Northern Championships Weekend middle distance 2022 (2nd April) Provisional

Northern Championships 2022 (3rd April)

JK Day 1 2022 (15th April)

JK Day 2 2022 (16th April)

JK Day 3 2022 (17th April)

Scottish Championships (28th May)

Selection process

Athletes should nominate themselves by writing to;

Mark Saunders   by 31st May 2022.

The selector may choose not to fill all available places if there are insufficient qualified athletes.

The tour selector

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

Illness or Injury

All cases of illness or injury which may affect an athlete’s ability to compete in one or more of the above selection races should be notified in writing to the athlete’s Regional Squad coordinator prior to the running of that race, clearly explaining the reasons for their failure to compete. The Regional Squad coordinator will make the Selector aware of such notifications prior to the race.