Inverness Orienteering Club welcomes you to the capital of the Highlands for a Scottish Orienteering Urban League (SOUL 2) event on Saturday 4th Feb 2023.  Together with the Gordonstoun Regional Sprint Event from Moravian Orienteers on Sunday 5^th Feb https://www.mor.scot/node/258 this promises to be an exciting and varied weekend of orienteering suitable for all abilities and all ages.

The Inverness City Race 2023 will be run on classic urban terrain around the Kinmylies and Charleston area of the city. The area is a mixture of complex housing with many cut-throughs, dead-ends as well as open areas and parkland and provides an abundance of route choice opportunities.

 

Course Information:  There will be nine courses suitable for all abilities.

 

Under 12s MUST enter Course 7 or CATI 1 (Come and Try It 1).

 

Under 16s MUST enter either Course 6 or Course 7 (or CATI 1).

 

Parents/guardians of junior competitors (under 16) must ensure that juniors understand the road hazards and decide whether shadowing is appropriate for each individual.  In particular please emphasise that all crossings of General Booth Road must be via the underpasses.

 

Any course can be entered non-competitively (ie Open 1, Open 2 etc).

Course	Category	Estimated Actual Course Length km	Direct Course Length km	Controls
Course 1	Men Open (M18+, M21+), Open 1	tbc	tbc	tbc
Course 2	Men Veteran (M40+), Women Open (W18+, W21+), Open 2	tbc	tbc	tbc
Course 3	Men SuperVet (M55+), Women Vet (W40+), Open 3	tbc	tbc	tbc
Course 4	Men UltraVet (M65+), Women SuperVet (W55+), Open 4	tbc	tbc	tbc
Course 5	Men HyperVet (M75+), Women UltraVet (W65+), Women HyperVet (W75+), Open 5	tbc	tbc	tbc
Course 6	Men Junior (M16-), Women Junior (W16-), Open 6	tbc	tbc	tbc
Course 7	Young Junior Men (M12-), Young Junior Women (W12-), Open 7	tbc	tbc	tbc
Come and Try It (CATI) 1	This is the shorter CATI course suitable for U12 and U16 Juniors if they are trying orienteering for the first time either solo or with their accompanying adult(s).	tbc	tbc – likely 2km	tbc
Come and Try It (CATI) 2	This is the longer CATI course and is for adults if they are trying orienteering for the first time or for older juniors and their adult(s) who want to go round together - no solo juniors should do this course.	tbc	tbc – likely 4km	tbc

 

Map

The map is printed at 1:4000 with 2m contours drawn to the current ISSprOM 2019-2 symbol set.

 

Event Centre

The Café in Charleston Community Centre What3words:  https://w3w.co/relay.edit.drew

 

Discipline

Urban

Event Level

Level C – Regional

 

Punch Type

SI AIR (Punching Start and Finish)

 

Registration Times

1100 -1300

 

Start Times

1130 – 1330

 

Courses Close

1500

 

BOF Event Number

82350

 

Entries

Online only for SOUL - courses 1-7. Entry on the day available for Come and Try It (subject to map availability).  Pre-entry preferred.  Please bring the right money.

 

Directions

Public Transport and Bicycles:  Please try to travel by public transport.  Inverness railway station and bus station are about 40 minutes walk from the Event Centre.  To avoid going through the competition area when walking or cycling to the event please follow these instructions:

·        From the south – go along General Booth Road and from there into the Community Centre.

·        From the north – go along King Brude Road which joins onto General Booth Road, then into the Community Centre.

 

HITrans bicycles – highly recommended - have a hub at Charleston Community Centre https://www.hi-bike.co.uk/ and at Inverness railway station (and several other places around town).  There are also plenty of railings outside Charleston Community Centre with good visibility from the event centre - for security - that you can lock a bicycle to.

 

Parking:   If you need to drive please make every effort to car share as parking space is going to be limited due to other events in the community centre.  From General Booth Road turn into Charleston View then first left into the car park in front of Charleston Academy.  If this car park fills up there is additional parking to the north – turn off General Booth Road into Assynt Road and then turn right.

 

Event Centre The Café in Charleston Community Centre What3words: https://w3w.co/relay.edit.drew

Due to other bookings the space we have available to us is extremely small and the café is not active.  Please mingle and chat outdoors.  The Event Centre will host:

• Entries on the day and maps for the Come and Try It (CATI) courses ONLY (limited by map availability)
• Hired dibber collection
• Enquiries
• Course 7 junior map collection
• Download
• Space to leave bags – only for those without a car
• Toilets
• Outside – tbc - tea and coffee to fundraise for the INVOC Juniors Training Camp, bring your own cup and plenty of change

 

Starts: Start times between 1130 and 1330 will be pre-allocated for Courses 1-6 and available on the website https://www.invoc.org.uk/index.php  at the enquiries desk and at the start.  Start times will not be allocated for Course 7 and the Come-and-Try It (CATI) courses.  Please come to the Start when you are ready between 1130 and 1330.

 

The distance from the Event Centre to the Start is approx 400m along a marked route, and may overlap with some runners at the underpass – please give way to runners as you walk to the start.  Entry to your start lane will be at -3 minutes.  Punching starts will be used.  SI AIR will be enabled, but you must punch the start and finish controls.

 

Clothing:  Shoes suitable for a mix of urban terrain, including wet grassy slopes, hard surfaces, steps and pathways , will be suitable for all courses. Shorts should also be fine but this is northern Scotland in February so dress appropriately for the weather on the day.  If the weather is severe, a waterproof top may be compulsory and there will be a sign to this effect on the beginning of the route to the start.

 

Warm up:  There will be a small warm up area along Kinmylies Way between the event centre and the start.  Please stay in the marked area.

 

Late starters:   Late starters will be fitted in when there are available time slots.

 

Loose Control Descriptions:  These will be available in the start boxes. The Come and Try It courses will use written descriptions and the SOUL courses the standard pictorial descriptions.

 

Finish:  The Finish will be close to the Community Hub building and will be unmanned.  All competitors must punch the finish control – it is not contactless. Please follow the marked route back to Download (approx 50m).  You MUST download even if you do not complete the course.  COVID precautions are still in place for inside venues, so please do not linger inside the event centre.

 

View the Event Disclaimer / Terms and Conditions.

View the Event Cancellation / Refund Policy.

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