Beckton (Regional)
Results | Routegadget | Report
Thank you all for coming to our urban event in Beckton yesterday - part of the East London Urban Orienteering weekend organised by CHIG and DFOK. Some 239 runners braved the wind and the hail to explore the local area using our brand new map, and there were many favourable comments on the courses. Well done to all the competitors, and a big thank you to Iain Ambler for organising, Jacob Stevens for planning, and Colin West for controlling.
See you in Canning Town today for part 2!
Iain Ambler, Organiser
Many thanks for coming to our urban event in Beckton on Saturday. We hope that you enjoyed the event in a brand new area for orienteering; the first major CHIG urban event for a while.
We have had generally very positive feedback on the suitability of the area for urban orienteering, on the courses and organisation.
Unfortunately, we had 1 competitor who suffered a minor head injury and needed first aid. Our very best wishes for your recovery. Thanks to Harold Wyber for providing immediate first aid, and to the person who gave the competitor a lift to Newham A&E.
We had 2 issues impacting controls/courses, both of which affected relatively few competitors. Control 105 was removed by an irate resident; while we quickly replaced it, a few competitors were impacted. For those competitors we have reinstated that control in the results. Secondly, we were late placing controls 107/109; a handful of competitors were impacted by this. My apologies. We have reinstated those controls in the results where required, as only a handful of competitors were impacted, and we don't believe it materially impacts positions and UKUL results. We decided not to void legs before/after as both issues impacted relatively few runners; BOF rules advise against correcting for individual estimated time loss.
By way of apology, we would like to offer competitors impacted by late placement of controls 107/109 a 50% refund on their entry fee. If you were one of those competitors and wish to claim a refund. Please email me and we will do the necessary using your RSU details.
Final results are now available on the CHIG website. The results for each age class and each course are also now available on Routegadget. Draw or upload your track and see how you compare with the routes that others took.
I would like to thank all of the CHIG and DFOK volunteers, and especially those volunteering for the first time, who helped on the day without whom the event couldn’t have happened. Special thanks go to: Don McKerrow (SLOW) for a super new map; to Jacob Stevens for meticulous and thoughtful course planning; to Colin West (SOS) for controlling the event and offering sound advice throughout the planning process; to Ray Weekes who first suggested Beckton as an area for urban orienteering; to Andrew Evans for co-ordinating the weekend, setting up the entries and advice throughout; to Royal Docks Academy for use of their school as an event centre; and finally to Newham Borough for permission to hold the event.
We look forward to seeing you again at our next event, a London series Park Race on Wanstead Flats in June
Jacob Stevens, Planner
I hope you enjoyed taking part in our first major urban event for many years. It was great to hear positive feedback from many of you on the courses, map, and area.
Iain and I first had the idea of putting on a CHIG urban event on the way back from DFOK's excellent Thamesmead event in autumn 2024. Ray suggested Beckton as a promising area, and after the necessary permissions were obtained, an event centre booked, and a map commissioned, I started the detailed planning late last year.
While Beckton mainly consists of low-rise housing built in the 1980s/90s, it has several contrasting areas, which I hope made the courses interesting and varied. The central housing estates contain a complex network of irregular roads and paths, offering technical navigation, and I tried to include a good number of legs in this area on all courses (other than 7). The northern area is quite different, with a simpler, more regular pattern, which I hope provided a contrast with some longer legs. To the east are some public buildings including the library and supermarkets, giving a change of scene, and the far SE corner (visited by the two longest courses) has two contrasting styles of housing. Finally, the western housing area, visited in the latter part of all adult courses, contains some higher-density housing estates with alleyways, and older terraced streets.
Running through the middle of this is the extensive Beckton Park, with typical urban parkland and lake in the north, an interesting area of woodland and grass corridors in the middle, playing fields to the south, and New Beckton Park in the far SE.
Early in the planning process, it became clear that the young junior course – and therefore the start and junior finish – would have to stay in Beckton Park for safety reasons. As this is some distance from the event centre, I chose to put the adult finish in King George V park instead; this also allowed all adult courses to visit the western area.
I tried to maximise the use of the intricate central area, while taking runners through a variety of other terrain, both built-up and parkland. The longest courses visited all parts of the map and included a loop through the wooded park in the middle, which I hope added interest and tested competitors' ability to quickly switch 'navigation modes'. The shorter courses were more constrained by distance, but I hope I gave everyone a good taste of the area and a variety of legs, including short intricate ones and some longer route choices. I planned the courses to be towards the upper end of the recommended distance range, given the flatness of the terrain, although perhaps in hindsight I should have shortened them a bit given that many of you will have been running in Canning Town the next day. I hope I didn’t tire people out too much for Sunday’s event.
I would like to apologise for the delay in putting out some controls in King George V park, which affected five runners on course 5 who reached control 109 before it was there! As my first time planning an urban event, I hugely underestimated the extra time it takes to gripple everything; this, along with a few other hiccups meant I overran my schedule considerably. I hope this didn’t spoil your run too much. I learned many things on Saturday, and made some comprehensive notes to ensure a smooth setup next time.
I also hope the 17 runners on courses 4 & 5 who encountered the missing control 105, which was removed by a local resident, didn’t find it affected their run too much. We replaced the control as quickly as we could. We have reinstated all runners who missed controls 105 or 109 in the results.
Many thanks to Don McKerrow for mapping the area from scratch (a huge undertaking given the size and complexity of the area); Keith, Luke & Jake Bennett (DFOK) and Ray Curtis for placing controls; Adam Dent, Tom Elgood, Nick Harrison, Joe Toller and Donatas Tumaitis for collecting them; Colin West for his excellent advice and support; and of course Iain and all helpers who made the event run smoothly.
Finally, it is great to see quite a few routes and comments on routegadget. It is very interesting to see the different route choices and any feedback, and really helps plan future events - so I would encourage you to upload or draw your route if you can.
Colin West, Controller
Working with Jacob, Iain and the CHIG team was a pleasure, with good communication and much detailed consideration of how to deliver a great event. The map and area offered opportunity to break up the grid of urban running with cut-throughs and parkland, and Jacob’s courses used this as well as balanced route choices designed to delay the indecisive runner.
The vandalism of one control was disappointing, and spoilt the latter stages for some runners, and this despite the planner’s sterling work with cables and gripples.
Having agreed in October to control the event, I was challenged with a fractured fibula in early December. This slowed me down for control checking in February, but happily was largely resolved by the day of the event.
There were bushes flowering as evidence of springtime, countered by a short but very sharp hailstorm that caught many runners. Orienteers being hardy types shrugged it off!