Nordic TrailO meeting – Sweden W Coast

The GB TrailO squad was again invited as guests to the Nordic TrailO meeting, held this year on the western coast of Sweden in areas about 150k north of Gothenburg over the weekend of  15-17 May. This is the area where WOC/WTOC 2016 will be held next year, and had the same event planner as the World Champs, Bosse Sandstrom, the current Swedish TrailO team manager.

The Nordic event is usually just Sweden v Norway v Finland v Denmark. We've sometimes put in a  guest team at the invitation of Denmark when the event has been there, but this year the guest list was widened to include Italy and a strong group of 2 Italians, 2 Slovakians and a Czech claiming to be the 'Austro-Hungarian Empire' team.

Historically the event is held of two days of PreO (new name for classic TrailO) with aggregated scores over the two days. As this was a dry run for the clubs and officials involved in organising WTOC 2016, and also for the results software developer, this year there was also a TempO event on the Saturday and a relay event for teams of 3 on the Friday, where many people competed for club teams as well as others for their national teams.

Eight members of the GB squad travelled to Western Sweden to meet up with Nick & Sarah-Jane Barrable, long-time Swedish residents, to make up two full teams of five. In our case that meant four of us getting up at 4.00am to get to Stansted in time for a 06.30 Ryanair flight to Gothenburg, where we picked up our hire care and drove 100k northwards to Torod and the relay event.

The TrailO relay is a new concept and in 2016 will replace the Team competition at the World Champs. It involves teams of three, with all first leg competitors taking part in a mass start.

There were 24 controls and each competitor in turn had to visit 8 controls each, so that all 24 were attempted by the team within the course time limit (around 3 hours). This means the first and second legs get a choice of their controls with the 3rd leg runner getting what the other two have left for them. After hand over each competitor then does a number of TempO style timed controls. At this event there were 4 tasks to be solved.

The results were calculated according to the new TrailO-Relay rules. Each wrong answer in the PreO part renders 60 sec penalty time and 30sec in the TempO part. The end result is the total of PreO penalty time + TempO penalty time + TempO answering time. The first GB team of John Kewley, Ian Dichfield and Pete Huzan finished a highly credible 4th overall, behind the Norwegians, Finns and Austro-Hungaria, but ahead of all the Swedes, whilst the 2nd team, purporting to represent Wimborne Orienteers, were disqualified after 2 legs when none of the rest of the squads travelling over from the UK managed to arrive in time for the handover.

As usual with Scandinavia, it took some time to get used to the mapping, particularly deciding what is and isn't marked, with many large areas of bare rock and substantial boulders simply not making it onto the map, and after the event was over, many of us took the opportunity to venture back into the forest to do a bit of training and look at some of the controls which we had not visited earlier.

Then it was another 60k northwards to find a suitable eating house before we checked into our very posh (& expensive)  accommodation at the Vann Spa Hotel at Brasted at the tip of a fjord after a long day.

Saturday was the first day of the Nordic competition, on the edge of the small town of Lysekil, with a PreO course of 25 controls in the morning, followed by a TempO competition in the afternoon.
Parking/Assembly was at the local primary school, and from there a taped route led us up the hill through housing to the competition area. The terrain was largely open, with huge areas of bare rock, covered in parts by scrub and largely mapped as 'rough open'  or as semi open if there was an occasional tree present.(See map) There were terrific views at first across the area to the jagged coastline beyond.

Our course, which may look on the map like a conventional one, was actually an out and back course along a track  up to a large wind turbine near number 12. We were warned that compasses were affected near the turbines, and naturally enough, control 13, which needed careful compass work to solve it, was viewed standing next to the turbine, with the compass 90 degrees out due to the magnetic field of the turbine! We had just over two hours to complete the course, and within half an hour of my starting, the view seaward largely disappeared and the forecast rain arrived, gently at first, then steadily for the rest of the day.

Many controls were single flag problems with a couple of stations where flags could be seen scattered over the terrain, sometimes as much as 300m away, (No.5). It was all very difficult, even for the massed ranks of Scandinavians and only tw0 of the 100 or so competitors got it all right. Your correspondent, with 15 correct, finished somewhere towards the bottom of the field.

After finishing the PreO, there was time for a loo stop and to pick up a packed lunch at a stall near the Start/Finish, before moving on to the afternoon task, the timed controls for the PreO course, followed by the Tempo competition.

Here the organisation, which had not anticipated such a large entry, rather broke down, with a 45 minute queue for the Timed Controls followed by an even longer queue for the TempO. After doing the TC's we were given an unprotected paper FootO map of the area, with a marked route which we had to navigate between the various TempO stations, where areas were blanked out on the map, and sent to join the queue for the start. Almost two hours later (!) I got to start.

There then followed a 2.5k trek in the rain back to the school via 5 TempO stations, each with 5 problems, so 25 problems in all. Somewhat to my surprise, I did rather better and finished 64th in the TempO, ahead of half the GB squad.

I had started off from the school just after 10.30 and eventually returned about 17.15, having been out in the rain for nigh on six hours: it was a tough day.

Nordic TrailO Day 1

On Sunday, we drove further up the coast to Tanum for part two of the Nordic competition, just one PreO course today in more semi open terrain on top of a hill, on which was another wind farm. The weather was fine and sunny, although it was clear why this rather exposed area had been chosen for a wind-farm! Rumour has it that this area is one of the model event areas for next year's World Championships.

This time there were no organisational problems and the day went smoothly, complete with transport from parking to the start for those who requested it: I was very grateful to be spared walking the long climb uphill to the start.

 The course had 27 controls, split into two legs, with the TC's in between. On each leg we walked along a track up to a summit complete with turbine, at which we handed in our maps and control cards to an official, before walking back down the hill to the Start/Finish. As we walked downhill, various junior members of the organising club passed us on mountain bikes, carrying a satchel of control cards back to Assembly so that the cards could be processed quickly.

As on Day 1, there were numerous single flag problems, with flags laid out across the complex open hillside. It was stunning terrain and just as difficult as on Day one. There were 27 controls, one of which was eventually voided as unfair. Only one competitor got them all right, and whilst I did better than the day before, it was only relative in that my final position was in the low 80's rather than the 90's.

The first GB team finished 12th.  My team, GB 2, well at least we beat the Italians.  Fortunately, when it comes to the World Champs, we compete against one team of 6 Swedes etc., rather than 6 teams of them.

After the event there was time for some of us to visit the famous historic site of Vitlycke, home to some of the earliest known rock carvings in the world, dating from the Bronze age of 3000BC. Then a two hour drive back to Gothenburg and the flight back to Stansted, where we joined the throng of weekenders arriving home via Ryanair and trying to get through immigration at midnight, followed by the journey to the car park. “Sit back and relax” said the bus driver over the intercom “and enjoy the wonderful scenery which is Stansted airport mid-stay car park at one  o'clock in the morning!”

Dick Keighley