Discussion: Exciting News!

Now that Ottawa O-Fest 2013 is over and registration for NAOC2014 has started with bang it's time for us as organizers to really buckle down and start figuring out details.

To keep you all up to date there's an Exciting News! feed on the website that we'll be updating every so often. But we know most people don't check the website very often...

That's why we'll also be posting all of our Exciting News! to Attackpoint via this thread as well!

To start things off:

The Canadian Nationals start in Hamilton in 2 days! NAOC2014 will have a booth set up throughout the weekend. Not only can you talk to Orienteering Ottawa and Arnprior reps to answer any questions you might have, but you can register right then and there and get 10% off at the o-store.*

Come on by and check us out during the Orienteering Canada AGM on Friday or any time in the arena on Saturday and Sunday. There may even be free stuff!

* Offer valid for purchases made on site during the 2013 Canadian Nationals only.

NAOC2014 is supporting World of O's 2013 Course of the Year competition.  Last year Jeff Teutsch's (yes that's me) training course on the Barrens (one of courses you will see in the training package) was voted to 8th place in this competition!  Now is the time where you can nominate courses for consideration as the best orienteering course in the world from 2013.
Enter your nomination as a comment on this page (http://news.worldofo.com/2013/11/12/course-of-the-...) along with a statement saying if you were to win a prize you would like the free entry to NAOC2014 (or a different race if you really want... but why would you do that? ;-) ).

Oh pick me, pick me ;-)

https://twitter.com/dontgetlostrun/status/33150449...

I suggested one of your more traditional courses :)
The men's elite middle distance course from the COCs. I didn't, on the other hand, choose NAOC2014 as my prize.

Wow thanks Jeff. Yeah we are very proud of that course. It is very hard to set a course in southern Ontario that doesn't involve trail running so we set out to attempt to get a challenging middle course. Mark Adams thinks it is the best course we have designed. I say 'we' because while I did the initial design it got morphed by suggestions from Patrick, Hans and Mark. I think each control on that course was visited over two dozen times each by various people (that is probably a low ball estimate). I think the challenge was the very technical start and then the change into the flat area. It seems that most people had trouble in the flat area. Perhaps they let their guard down. In Jan Kocbach's response to your nomination of our course he mentions he doesn't think there is much route choice on the long leg. Which is quite odd because there is a lot of route choice on that leg. At least from the post-race discussions. Thanks again for the nomination.

I agree - I think there was a lot of route choice in that leg. I don't think Jan looks at the courses all that closely - he has a lot of them to go through and I can see how on first glance you might say it's not really a route choice leg.

Believe it or not but our WRE controller asked us to remove that leg.
We refused.

On what grounds??

I always knew GHO was rather obstreperous;)

Yep, letting the guard down described it pretty well, and then it's like "what has just happened to me?".

Awesome course.

The inspiration for the lots of short legs early for this course was the men's middle at Ottawa OC's COC 2010 men's middle. Looking forward to going into that terrain again at NAOC 2014!!

Having said that I was concerned that trains would develop but the hills probably reduced that from happening and from what I understand most people did quite well in the spaghetti area.

obstreperous indeed.

We're super excited to announce that the Town of Arnprior has agreed to close a series of roads in downtown so that we can run the sprint through some technical urban terrain! You can expect the sprint to have a great mix of urban terrain, forest, and city park to make for a very challenging race for North America's biggest orienteering event. Is this a first for North American Orienteering?

We will be updating the embargo rules for the sprint and relay areas shortly to reflect this and show more details about what you are and aren't allowed to do in Arnprior. Stay tuned.

Cool!

Very cool!

Might they even close the bridge over the Madawaska?

@Guy,

To the best of my knowledge that hasn't been discussed.
While I have no idea what the course setting team has been up to I can't imagine the course crossing the river... That part of town is not embargoed and the aerial photos don't show much interesting terrain there.

Dave McMahon of xczone.tv is providing his impressive camera skills to help us with the advertising for NAOC2014. Thanks to Dave's generosity in providing his time for free we will be releasing a long series of micro commercials every couple of weeks in the new year and a ' full youtube length' feature of around 3 minutes in the spring.

Here's an early video to get you going. We would love it if you could make your way to the NAOC2014 facebook page and share the video. That would be a huge help in promoting not only the event but also the sport! Thanks all!

Dave's XC ski videos are incredible so I'm really looking forward to the full length video in the spring! Great work in linking up with XCZoneTV.

Our first video of the new year and the start of a great series of micro-commercials by XCZoneTV!



Don't forget that prices go up at the end of January!

Our next video is out!
"Orienteering Ottawa is kicking into high gear for NAOC2014! While the organizing committee are making it all happen its athletes are busy training their butts off in the cold to claim those home-town medals! What are you doing to give them a run for their money?"

Also an update on the sprint embargo! We've opened up the downtown business district for walking through but no exploring with an orienteering map! There's some great businesses in there which we'd like to support but the sprint courses will be going through there as well so no cheating...


View NAOC2014 Embargoes in a larger map

With 4 new registrations last night we have reached our first registration milestone. 100 participants so far! The Mayland family from the Delaware Valley Orienteering Association brought us up to 102 registrants at 10:00 PM on January the 27th.

With two and a half weeks to go until the early-bird deadline can will we hit 200 by then? The deadline is the 14th of February. How about 700 by the final registration deadline?

New video! We promise the chances of it snowing during NAOC2014 next October are incredibly slim!

Wow! 235 registered participants and we're still 8 months away from the event!

We've easily surpassed our target of 200 participants by the early bird registration deadline and we've got 11 hours to go. Will we hit 250 by midnight?

Yesterday I asked if we'd hit 250 by midnight. We ended up with 290 registered by the end of the day - 90 more than our early estimates!!!

We are excited by the community's eagerness to register which is fueling our energy to take control and make NAOC2014 the event is can and should be.

With almost as many Americans as Canadians currently signed up a great rivalry for the People's Cup is brewing. You can give your club a better chance of winning by encouraging other members of your club to register over the next 7 months. Of course non-North Americans are welcome to challenge for this new competition and we have a good base of you coming already. We promise great orienteering and a great party!

What is the "People's Cup" ? Can't find info about it on your website.

Geoman, a fair question - I hadn't realise that we had been putting out information faster via other methods than via the website.

The People's Cup is being added to the Bjorn Kjellstrom and Future Champions cups being handed out at the end of the North American Championships weekend. Unlike the Bjorn Kjellstrom and Future Champions cups the People's Cup will be award to the top club rather than top country in the event. We haven't worked out exactly what the scoring scheme will be but it will count depth in the club as well as top results. The mass participation event on Monday will feature heavily in the People's Cup scoring.

Sorry for taking so long to answer.

It's been 3 weeks now since the early bird registration deadline rush and now that we've had some time to recover from that we have several new developments to let you know about.

1. On April 25th to 27th we are hosting our NAOC2014 Take Control Training Weekend. This will consist of 3 low key SI races (Sprint, Middle, Long) on some of Ottawas nicest maps. I.E. March Highlands (used in 2012 for O-Fest's middle distance race) and the famous 'the Barrens' map. There will be two additional training sessions to help you prepare for the terrain you will see in October.
As part of the Take Control Weekend we are hosting an IOF Event Adviser clinic lead by the IOF Rules Committee Chair and NAOC2014 Event Adviser David Rosen and a press conference to officially launch NAOC2014.

We hope you will join us for some if not all of that weekend.
You can find more details on the website here.
In pdf format here.
And as an attractive flyer here.

2. We finally have our sponsorship package ready and available. I know there are many orienteers out there with small businesses so if any of you would like to get involved with NAOC2014 let us know. We'd love to have you on board!

The package is available here.

3. We have updated the website to include a page of all the photos our organizers and course setters have been taking as we prepare for the event including lots of photos of the terrain. You can find that at NAOC2014.ca/photos

It's been a while since you've heard from us because our publicity team has been too busy with other things. James has been busy with school and I've been coaching 4 days a week this spring to get everyone ready for the NAOCs. But our spring series and programs are over and it's time to look ahead to the fall.



We had a large meeting of all our NAOC2014 coordinators yesterday and were reminded of all the amazing things there will be at the event. Lots of things are coming together so expect regular updates for the next little while!

An update on the planned tour between the US Nationals and NAOC2014:
"We regret to inform you that the tour we were planning with the Rochester Orienteering Club, host of the 2014 US Orienteering Nationals, has been cancelled due to a lack of interest.
...
We are currently looking at alternative options for the week of October 6th between the US Nationals and NAOC2014 such as providing a small night orienteering opportunity in Ottawa in addition to the training maps you can purchase with registration."

You can find the full details here

We've just released the menus for the breakfasts and dinners at the event centre and they look amazing (affordable too)!

Here's the banquet menu:

Carved Hip of Beef with Homemade Gravy
Horseradish and Peppercorn Sauce
Stuffed Chicken Breast
Honey Garlic Roast Pork
Cheese Tortellini with Marinara Sauce
Roasted Rosemary and Garlic Potatoes
Green Beans & Baby Carrots
Whole Dressed Atlantic Salmon Platter
Mixed Baby Salad Greens
Broccoli & Sunflower Seed Salad
Cheese & Fresh Fruit & Pickle Trays
Homemade Rolls & Butter
Tiramisu Cake, Cherry Cheesecake, Fresh Fruit Salad
Tea, Coffee, Water, Milk

The rest of the menus are available under Meal Plan on the hospitalities page fo the NAOC2014 website.

You can sign up for meals when you register for NAOC2014. If you've already registered for the races and these menus have convinced you to sign up and eat with your competitors then e-mail registrar Linda Connell (registrar@NAOC2014.ca) to sign up.

Yummer. I'm hungry now!

Keep up the great work with event planning!

We're doing our best Pink Socks - we have a great team which makes all the different :)

Of those who are coming to the NAOC hands up those who would be interested in participating in a night orienteering event on the Thursday evening (Oct 9th). This would be in a mix of street and park terrain with the start and finish at a local pub/restaurant in the western part of Ottawa (Kanata) about 40 km from Arnprior.
(The venue will probably change if the Ottawa Senators (ice hockey) have a home game that evening or we will register and start after the crowd has left for the game.)

By the way if you are looking for more upscale accommodation the hotels to search for are in Kanata , 20 km from the middle and long. Hotels include Holiday Inn, Choice Hotels, Extended Stay and a number of others.

NAOC2014 is now a 9 country event. Joining members from Canada, US, Barbados, UK, Sweden, Switzerland, France and Norway are 9 orienteers from UGANDA, one of the newest IOF member countries. We look forward to welcoming Mr. Sam Lubega and his Ugandan team to the Ottawa Valley. Which country will join next...

Real Ugandans that will actually be able to come? Or the same ones there were promissed in 2012?
http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me...

I guess we'll have to wait and see. It seems promising so far - we have a list of names along with passport numbers from them and are supposedly waiting for their sponsors to pay for the entry.

Expect the number of countries to expand soon....

Something I can't find any real information about is the relay - is this for selected national teams only or is it open more generally? (I'm assuming from the venue it's a sprint relay).

That's exciting Blair!

My apologies for the lack of information available for the relay. This is only the second time that the relay has been a part of the NAOCs and we've spent a long time trying to figure out the format, rules, and timing for what we want to do.

Details will be out shortly but I will say that the relay itself is a sprint relay with M/F20E and M/F21E classes only. To participate in the relay you should have been registered in one of the elite classes for all three individual races.

There will be a mass start race using the relay courses afterwards for all age classes.

I hope that helps

Jeff, do you expect a few Euro elites to be racing?

Nev, I know there were several elites from Europe thinking about it over the winter... Not sure if anyone is still thinking about it.

Our volunteers were working on awards for the awards ceremonies this week. Busy busy!

I'll drink to that!

You made me hungry last week. Now I'm thirsty this week!

Is the relay open or by country selection only (as in 2012)?

I would sure love to run in the elite relay, but am not (currently) on a national team...

Pink Socks, what will it be next week...

Hammer, wilsmith,
We spent a long time discussing that issue. If I recall the results of our discussion correctly the relay will be open so long as you were registered in the elite categories for the individual races you ran. We figured that was the best way to balance making an elite relay with more teams and therefore more exciting without opening it up completely which would make it hard to follow the top teams because there are so many athletes going through the exchange zone on the various legs.

We also are conscious of the fact that we have a limited amount of time before we need to wrap everything up with the awards and closing ceremony before everyone heads home. Everyone who is spectating the relay will have a chance to run one of the relay legs in a mass start event afterwards.

We've just received word from XCZoneTV that Dave is editing our full length teaser for NAOC2014 today. It shouldn't be long before it's ready for release!

In the mean time here's another micro-commercial:

re- relay.. why limit to competitors registered to run as 'elite' only at NAOC ? if worry about number of teams , then limit to a certain number ..i.e.5 teams ( per country ) - given by national coach..and a max of another 5 teams ( per country ) as club teams, states teams or provincial teams.. those extra teams for sure will try to put their best folks ( maybe former elites , not necessarily registered as M/F21 E for this event)..with a max of 20 teams for sure will be more excitement and you will have a chance to grow relay popularity here in NA..
and if you are a current national team member and miss out in the top 5 teams, for sure your club/province/state will be happy to have you in a team ( or create one around you )
my 2 cents (oops ..the nickel)

Thanks for that thought Nick. It IS an interesting alternative, and one we had not come up with in our discussions. We will bring it up with the organizing team. Not sure if it's too late to make a change in our plans. It is part of the official NAOC event and therefore needs to be approved by IOF, now that we are an official regional championship within IOF.

Nick's proposal would fit within the rules - the only constraint on participation is that official teams have to consist of people who are citizens of the same country.

I'm a bit puzzled by this...

Back in 2012, the sprint relays were only for the Bjorn Kjellstrom and Future Champions Cup competitions. The teams were composed of whomever the respective countries wanted on each of their 8 teams ( 2 male / 2 female; 2 junior male / 2 junior female), provided the inidividuals were citizens (same as WOC / JWOC). Everybody else could -- and did -- cheer them on, and it made for a great atmosphere.

Anyway, how does this new relay idea fit in with the BK/FC cup relays? And what difference does a relay like this make to the IOF? Aren't Regional Championships only about Middle, Longs & Sprint individual races -- like WREs?

Our final promo videos are out. Dave McMahon of XCZone TV has made us two very professional caliber trailers - we're ever so impressed and thankful to Dave for the amazing work he's put in.

Trailer 1 - 2 minute long:


Trailer 2 - 1 minute long:

So the NAOC2014 Nation Count is now at 11: Barbados, Canada, USA, Denmark, France, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda & the United Kingdom!

Nice work on the videos OttawaOC! And super exciting to be getting up to 11 countries.

Reason number 3 to come to NAOC2014 is so exciting (and it also happens to be new) so we think it deserves being shared on this thread too:

"We're in the final 3. I particularly like this reason: our just released NAOC2014 theme song "Take Control"!

Have a listen here: https://soundcloud.com/orienteers/take-control-nao... I have no doubt that everyone will be signing along by the end of the NAOC2014 weekend. I already hum along whenever I play it (which is surprisingly often.

The song is by a local band called Orienteers who agreed to create a theme song for us free of charge so we'd love it if you could listen to some of their stuff on soundcloud and head over to their facebook page and give them a like."

Link needs a fix.
url=https://soundcloud.com/orienteers/take-control-nao

Link on other thread is ok, though

Oops, thanks for catching that Guy. Fixed now.

NAOC2014 orienteering shirts have shipped out of Estonia today! Remember to pre-order yours by e-mailing our registrar at registrar@naoc2014.ca.

It's official - the first AFTER HOURS at NAOC will be The Orienteers in special performance after dinner on Friday the 10th at the EVENT CENTRE. There is no charge for NAOC2014 participants - just part of the fun. The Ottawa band will also be performing our theme song TAKE CONTROL at the opening ceremonies earlier that same evening! What a way to kick off the weekend!
"Orienteers are the heavy-lidded lords of a sweet, sleepy land of achingly pretty melodies, peaceful reflection and fuzzy warmth… almost impossible to dislike."

This is all well and good, but will there be a Beer-O?

Just for the walrus mustached old farts (Beer-O) :)

Information on the Bjorn Kjellstrom, Future Champions, and the new People's Cups are finally now up on the website here. You can find the complete rules for the BK and FC cups here and the complete rules for the People's Cup here.

I am confused by the mention of two relay options. Will there be two separate relays?

No. I just had another read through the rules and I can definitely see where the confusion comes from - I'll fix that when I get a chance this afternoon.

The rules are written to include both options to leave it up to future organizers to choose which format they want to include in the program.

Got it, thanks!

Quick clarification on the relay rules.

Info states "Each North American country (USA, Canada) will be able to enter as many teams as they can field with the restriction that registration is limited to those athletes who have competed in the elite (M20-E, F20-E, M21-34E, F21-34E) classes in the individual races"

So is relay participation limited to those athletes that competed in the elite classes in ALL the individual races or at least ONE individual race.

When will the registration lists be published? There doesn't seem to be an option on Zone4 to see the list of who's entered.

Good question Hammer. The intention is that they are elite level athletes in the 20- E or 21-34E classes. They should be registered in an elite class in all the races they are racing.

Has Canada and the U.S. named General Managers or some other fancy title for whomever's in charge of their teams for the NAOC?

@canadian: damn! Too bad Brian May, Nick Duca, Hans Fransson, Mark Adams and I aren't elite level athletes in the open elite category anymore cause while we are running some of the races as elite we aren't running elite in them all. Pity.That's a heck of a lotta WOC experience there and what 6 individual NorAm titles and a bunch of BK Cup titles. Don't get me wrong Id rather watch but I think team Canada would be happy to have a few of those other names running in the relay on Monday.

Though 'should' is not the same as 'must'.

;-) I joke. Sorta.

Hammer is just about right .. if M35 or M45 course for sprint will be as M21E .. problem could be solved.. or almost..at least one race at M21E would be better.. for both countries..more athletes , more teams, more enthusiasm.

Perhaps future organisers will have to add a masters category.
There is definitely validity to what you have both said but the decision was made to keep the entire field competitive yet large enough to be exciting with the finish window as tight as possible. The NAOC relay is an evolving thing so we'll see how it works this year and the next organizers can learn from it and make improvements for the next NAOCs.

A clarification on the rules -

This means that course 9 and 10 [4 and 5 for the sprint] will follow IOF rules and M and W 21-34E competitors must obey such rules as not carrying any GPS devices with a display of any kind.

Do the IOF rules apply only to M/W21-34E, or to all age classes on those courses? Of particular interest to me is whether I can wear my Garmin watch in the sprint since W35-44 is on course 4.

I believe the IOF rules apply to everyone on that course but I will ask our WRE advisor and confirm. My understanding is that everyone of that gender can collect WR points regardless of the class they're registered in so the WRE rules apply to them.

Again, I'll confirm that.

Previously WREs have had it so that regardless of which course you ran, you are only part of the WRE and only get points if you are registered for that class. This has been to keep it fair in terms of start windows, and in my opinion, incentivize people to race the elite class.

Previously WREs have had it so that regardless of which course you ran, you are only part of the WRE and only get points if you are registered for that class.

But, to the contrary, there have in fact been many WRE events where points are given to all athletes on the course, regardless of class.

A recent example is 2013 Canadian Champs Sprint:
WRE points ... http://iofranking.osport.ee/iofranking/ResultsView...
Results showing class (Courses 4b and 5b are the relevant ones) ...
http://dontgetlost.ca/images/stories/glof/2013_glo...

Top non-elites: Michael Svoboda received 978 points while running M20. Emma Waddington received 831 points while running W20.

So mike and emma should have both gotten points because M/W 20 is the elite Junior category. So my understanding is its only M/W 20 &21e that should get WRE points

Charm and Val Duca, both racing W35, also received WRE points. As event registrar, whenever we hold WRE events I hear from some people (not these two) who are keen to ensure that their age category will be running the WRE course. If not, they ask to change categories.

Acampbell, it's only the 21E courses that are WRE courses. The junior elite courses aren't WRE courses in their own right.

Still waiting on a final answer from David about the original question.

For reference: page 6, section 7, last paragraph, of the WRE Guidelines.

"...all runners on the M/W21 elite courses will be ranked as a result of their performance in the race."

Whether other classes are ranked depends on which age categories, if any, are running the same courses as M/W 21.

Here is the full paragraph:
Please note that all runners on the M/W21 elite courses will be ranked as a result of their performance in the race. No one can opt out of this. Note also that this applies irrespective of the age class of the runner. Thus, for example, a M18 may gain World Rankings points having competed successfully in the M21 World Ranking course.

It seems pretty clear that the intent is that all athletes on the same course (regardless of their category) will receive WRE points (i.e., all males on the M21E course and all females on the W21E course).

Regarding the relay: They should be registered in an elite class in all the races they are racing.

Is this exactly what it means? I.e., if an athlete is *registered* for the elite class in all the individual races but does not actually run all of them, for whatever reason (rest, injury, sight-seeing tour that day...), they are still eligible to run in the relay?

Yes Cristina, that is exactly what it means.

Sorry to belabor the point, and I thought my question had been resolved with the note above about all runners on the M/W21E courses getting WRE points (regardless of class), but now I see the following in Bulletin 3 with regards to the sprint:

"This means that course 4 and 5 will follow IOF rules and M21-­‐34E and F21-­‐34E competitors must obey such rules as
not carrying any GPS devices with a display of any kind. All athletes competing in the 20-­‐E and 21-­‐34E classes, plus anyone
else on course 4 and 5 wishing to receive World Ranking points will be required to be in quarantine at the Event Centre."

That sounds like as an F35+ on course 4, I have a choice about whether or not I want WR points and thus, if I didn't, I could skip quarantine and wear my GPS watch.

(Sounds like a headache for the organizers to have to keep track of the "anyone elses"!)

Thanks for bringing that up arthurd - that was a mistake in the bulletin that we have corrected in a note that all those affected will receive with their race kits.

The short of it is that every single athlete running courses 4 and 5a will need to be in Quarantine by 9:00 at the latest on Monday morning. Those athletes on 5b do not go through quarantine.

Thanks for the quick clarification!

On Monday, is there an alternative child-care drop-off location for parents who are subject to quarantine and not allowed in the arena before running?

Will USD currency ($10) be accepted for parking at the arena?

Da

Ken, we will get back to you on that - we will see what we can do for people in that situation.

z-man, I don't see why not.

I am also in Ken's situation.

Me too.

For those who wish to pay $10 US for parking please see me first and I will gladly change your US $ for Canadian $ at par(king).

They seemed pretty happy to take $10 US at registration, but thanks anyway Gord.