WOC 2007, Kyiv

KIEV – TERRAIN & TECHNIQUES by Bilbo

A lot of this information was annotated onto a town map as part of an indoor session. This map will be displayed for all to see, together with o-maps, at a winter weekend (Inaugural?).

All WOC and training areas are in or next to the city. Although they are within a small area, each WOC event has its own distinctly different terrain type.

LONG RACE: will take place on a range of hills to the west of the river. The older part of the city is also built on these hills (the only high land for miles around). The hills consist of a 100m thickness of loess (wind-blown dust). The area features very steep spur / gully terrain to the east. The gully sides are cliffs of earth in places and hard to climb. There is more gentle spur / gully in the centre of the area, running into almost flat terrain in the west. There is a track network throughout. The forest is generally fast. Where there is a dark cover of deciduous trees there is often with no undergrowth apart from a layer of discarded drink bottles and other crap.
The area is surrounded by the city on 3 sides and by the fields of an outdoor museum (the finish area) on the south side.
A full range of continental techniques is required – route-choice in spur / gully, compass in flat areas. Hard two-paced running. Track speed. Hill fitness.
Relevant areas – Silkeborg, Japan, Cannock / Epping for gentler spur / gully. Anywhere steep, also anywhere flat and vague!
The area is covered by 3 old o-maps. The area is a one-off in terms of terrain type, though there are 4 small, scrappy training maps of similar terrain which are worth visiting (Baby Jar, Roobezhivsky, Doobky and Independence Day 2005 Sprint area).

SPRINT RACE: a city park just west of the river, on the loess hills. A very steep wooded slope with lots of parallel contouring paths, many surfaced. Long flights of steps. Also a narrow strip of flatter park on the top – wooded but with short grass and surfaced paths. Lots of monuments & buildings. Grassy landscaped knolls for spectator controls. Possibly people everywhere barbequeing and throwing rubbish around.
Techniques: to use Helen’s phrase; a park-o / slope-o combo.
Training areas – the same 4 described above for the Long.

MIDDLE RACE & RELAY: heavily wooded sand-dune terrain, probably on the plains east of the river. Snaking ridges up to 15m high. Contours 2.5m. Lots of knolls / depressions / re-entrants. Not as complex as most UK coastal dunes but more similar to moraine detail (Loch Vaa). Easy orienteering on ridges but some tricky pits etc in flat areas.
Very fast forest on the ridges but some flat areas between can be extremely overgrown with nettles & brambles.
These WOC events will probably be well under 5m/km. Although the orienteering is not especially hard, it will be very fast and demand total concentration.
Lots of training maps of similar terrain available.
Relevant areas in UK: any forested dunes or moraine.

The weather was really nice – mid/high 20s each day (we were there the same week as WOC).
We visited several shockingly bad areas which didn’t look relevant to WOC. Notably the vast bramble patch NW of the city. Also the very nettley islands at Hydropark (good for beaches though). Future groups will be saved the stings and scratches of visiting these! There is a bad map but excellent terrain just N of Nicosa Metro Station 2 stops from hotel.
A single training camp should suffice for most people, plus perhaps a weekend visit for some racing. Then find some areas at home to train on, away from the smog and radiation.

In general, the orienteering at WOC will be interesting, enjoyable and a bit different with plenty to look forward to.

posted by daniel @ 2:39 pm