Event of the Year 2023: O-Fest Knockout Sprint

Those who braved the rain and cold were treated to an exciting series of races in downtown. One of the many stages of the Canadian Orienteering Festival which also featured the Canadian championships in Montreal a few days later. This event challenged not only speed but also endurance, as the finalist had to run 4 races adding up to over 10 km throughout the day. 111 competitors ran the qualifier race, but round by round they were eliminated until only 6 men and 6 women remained to run the finals on the University of Ottawa campus.

Congratulations to the organizing team for all their hard work and being the inaugural winners of this award!

Interview with course setter Andrew Cornett

The knockout sprint is a relatively new discipline. How did you tackle organizing an event with minimal experience in that format?

I did a few things to learn about the discipline and prepare. First, I reviewed the information on the IOF website related to the KO sprint discipline, then I reviewed maps from world cup KO sprint competitions available online and I watched video replays from several world cup KO sprint competitions. I also organized a low-key KO sprint test event at Andrew Haydon Park at one of the club's Wednesday night running sessions.

Check out the RouteGadget for the test event http://orienteeringca.nationprotect.net/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map&id=880&kieli=

What did you learn from your test event at Andrew Haydon Park that you applied to the O-Fest? What did you learn at O-Fest that you'll apply to NAOCs this summer?

At the test event I learnt to begin setting out controls earlier next time!! I also learned that we needed to improve our process for handling the participants within the meOS (SI) event management system. I also learned that most participants seemed to enjoy the format and the head-to-head racing.

At the O-Fest event I learned many things, from ways to improve my mapping and sprint course-setting skills, to ways to better discourage runners from crossing out-of-bounds terrain and ways to prepare for and handle last-minute surprises, such as last-minute construction works.

Did you encounter any challenges, either during the preparation of the event or on race day?

There were several significant challenges in organizing the event. One of these was gaining the necessary permissions from the NCC, the NAC, the city, and uOttawa. Another big challenge was updating the old maps of downtown Ottawa and the uOttawa campus, converting both to ISSprOM format, and getting comfortable with the mapping of multi-level structures. On the day of the event we were surprised to find that one of the staircases for accessing upper levels of the NAC building had been closed due to construction. This was a big problem as this particular staircase was shown open on the maps and was a good route choice on several tricky legs. Despite last minute instructions about the closure given at the start line, some runners used the staircase anyway, while others took a much more circuitous route, adding several minutes to their times. This was unfortunate and very unfair because the times in this race were used to select and seed participants for the knock-out rounds later that day. Another challenge was the inclement weather - it rained cats and dogs during the morning's qualification race and continued off and on all afternoon during the knock-out rounds.

The infamous staircase leading to the roof of the NAC

Were you surprised by any of the competitors' route choices or results?

I was surprised to hear that some runner's in the qualification race chose to run across 6 lanes of traffic on the McKenzie King Bridge, despite my best efforts at marking the roadway as out-of-bounds. I was also surprised to hear about runners crossing through out-of-bounds terrain in Confederation Park.

What is your favorite course and/or leg?

I liked all the courses, but leg 3-4 of the KO sprint final is memorable as it featured a good route choice puzzle which brought some of the runners past the arena and ended up separating the medalists from the rest of the pack.

In the men’s final, only one athlete went right and lost 5-10 seconds over the rest of the field, who all went left

What is your overall impression of the knockout sprint format?

Good fun for competitors, in particular the speedy ones who excel at sprint orienteering and can progress to the final round. Entertaining for spectators, particularly when the runners can be viewed from the arena. Challenging for organizers - the format requires officials to work a long day and so many things can go wrong! I feel it is important to offer consolation races for the slower competitors to ensure that the format is appealing for orienteers of all ages and abilities.

Who else was part of the organizing team?

The O-Fest KO Sprint could not have happened without significant contributions by many people, and I am grateful to them for their help and support. Hence, I would like to share this award with:

Stefan for his guidance as controller

Eric and Rob for their mastery of SI

Bill A and his great team of start officials (Gloria, Karen, Gerry)

Cherie for helping with control setup

Mike Raz and his crew for arena setup

Richard, Lorna and Karen for serving as marshals all day long in the rain and helping with control pick-up

Jeff for announcing

Kumiko and Linda for registration

Nancy for post-race nutrition

Lorna for managing the website

Anne for her steady hand on the tiller as O-fest meet director

+ others whose names are not included here due to my neglect.