Discussion: And the final animals are...

Greyhounds: Gabriel Lombriser, Mike Smith, Jonas Kjall, Jarkko Laine.

Hares: Ben Legg, Jon Torrance (tied), Magnus Johansson, Eric Bone.

Impalas: Mikkel Conradi, Clem McGrath, Tapio Karras, Bill Pullman.

Eric advanced to the the Hares by winning the Deer heats. Beyond the top two brackets memory escapes me, although Cristina is very much alive in the Jaguars. There was a lot of use of the Eric Bone amendment that concerns upward-downward mobility between the brackets, so it took about two hours to figure out the brackets over the dinner.

Unfortunately Mike has to catch an early flight this morning and will most likely be unable to run in The Final. Mike requested that we fill his spot, and we tried hard doing so, but we immediately faced the two tied Hares. A five-man Final wouldn't be a problem, but all the brackets below started to fall apart as we couldn't figure out which of our rules of advancement to apply first: time-based, or place-based. Do you advance the second or third lower-heat person who beat the last person of the higher heat? What about people from even lower heats who did well? As we realized there was a dead end, we just decided to apply the original rules.

The Final is at 9 am this morning at McLaren Park. Winners of all brackets will get cool commemorative prints specially designed by Rex's friend Ben.

And the final standings of the Series Finals are...

1. Gabriel Lombriser
2. Jonas Kjäll
3. Jarkko Laine
4. Mike Smith (DNS Final)
5. Jon Torrance
6. Magnus Johansson
7. Eric Bone
8. Ben Legg
9. Mikkel Conradi
10. Tapio Karras (1st Men Masters)
11. Bill Pullman (2nd Men Masters)
12. Clem McGrath
13. Will Critchley
14. Patrick Nuss
15. Cristina Luis (1st Women)
16. Steve Gregg (3rd Men Masters)
17. Andrea Balakova (2nd Women)
18. Dean Sturtevant
19. Dennis Wildfogel (DNS Final)
20. Bruce Wolfe (DNS Final)
21. Bob Cooley
22. Gavin Wyatt-Mair
23. Lauren Knight (3rd Women)
24. Jonathan Hallsted (DNS Final)
25. Clare Durand (1st Women Masters)
26. Alex Kerr
27. David von Holder
28. Bronwyn Caplinger
29. Melissa Trout
30. Barbara Robben

Thanks to BAOC's O in the Oaks crew, Rex, Vladimir, and everyone who helped make it a great week of events. The Sprint Series Finals, in particular, was a visionary event, featuring outstanding venues, each with a distinctive character and course setting that took advantage of that character. The final two sprints, at McLaren Park, are probably the best I have ever run. The map and courses were excellent, and the competition was fierce and fun.

The Stage Five (The Final) course featured significant input by Alexei Azarov, who unfortunately could not be in the country in October/November. He deserves most of the credit.

Super. Wow. Everything.

Yes, thanks to everyone! Especially to Rex who put in a herculean effort for 7 straight days. Had a great 10 days in California! For me personally the highlights were Point Bonita and the second day at McLaren. The Stage Five course was especially good, with some route choice legs that split the runners up. I would have loved to see some sort of forked loops in all the stages, though, to create some chance for individual navigation.

Special mention to Bob Cooley for putting on a radio-O at Morgan Territory. That was a memorable and fun surprise.

Now, about The Two Towers. Guess which location from an aerial photo was initially used as a reference point for the map... "they couldn't have MOVED THE TOWER, could they? ..."

I echo the praise for all the organizers who contributed to a great week of orienteering. The weather was great, the maps were fun and the courses were interesting and challenging. I especially enjoyed the variety of terrains from Pacheco Pass to SFSU to Point Bonita and on... I was amazed to hear the last minute heroics that went into pulling off the McLaren Park events and only wish I could have run the full course today.
Congratulations and thanks to all. (I hope Rex enjoys 2012!)

As a BAOCer, I was amazed at how nice the terrain and map of McLaren Park were. I have been orienteering there once before, in 2002, when Rex put on an informal training event in the park. However, back then the map looked like this:

From McLaren2002

as opposed to the current map:

From McLaren2002

As an aside, the residential area southeast of the park is one of the most poverty-stricken and dangerous areas of San Francisco, which is why this park has a bad reputation among the locals. (You definitely wouldn't want to hold a night-O there!). I remember that at Rex's 2002 event, I ran the roads outside of the park to get from control 8 to 9, and when climbing up the hill to 9 from the east, had to run right through a horrible public housing project to get back into the park.

At no point during the mapping of McLaren Park did it feel like a dangerous, neglected, or not well-kept area. As an aside, the residential neighborhoods around the park don't strike me as exceptionally dangerous, either. They aren't as nice as the north-central part of town, but don't feel unsafe or neglected. Crime situation in the United States has been continuously improving and the neighborhoods in the southeast of town may be the beneficiaries. I think Golden Gate Park is a lot more potentially dangerous area to an orienteer's health and safety because of needles left by users (the use has not been on the decrease in the past years, unlike violent crime).

I think McLaren would be perfect for a night-O. A bit small, perhaps.

A superb orienteering weekend with varied sprint terrain. Congrats and thanks to the chief organizers Rex and Vlad (Terraloco and Getlost), mappers, setters and helpers. The maps and courses were great, the banquet convivial and other arrangements (accommodation, directions) spot on. Well done to all.

Yes, really great. Thanks guys!

We are already thinking of holding another Sprint-focused festival, on a bunch of new ISSOM maps, in early 2011 or maybe earlier. We will strive again to deliver the highest international-level quality of the maps, courses, and competition.

Thanks again to all of you who came from places far away. The level of competition in the top bracket was on par with the highest in the whole history of the Sprint Finals. We sure wish the local turnout was better, though.

... something like the first weekend of January (7th through 9th, 2011), with a Team training camp during the preceding week a-la 2007.

Preliminary list of venues (quite subject to change):

Fri PM: Pt Bonita (open/urban), Sausalito
Sat AM: McLaren Park (new terrain) (forest), San Francisco
Sat AM: McLaren Park (new terrain) (forest), San Francisco
Sat PM: Land's End (forest/urban), San Francisco
Sun AM: Bayview/Candlestick (forest/urban), San Francisco

Rex here. The week was a thrill. We loved hosting you from all over. Thanks to our guest course setters Magnus Johansson, Eric Bone, Ben Legg, and Dennis Wilkinson for putting on great training events - I really enjoyed their talents. Thanks to BAOC for coproducing the whole week with us, and thanks to everybody from here and there who pitched in. Having the sprint finals was a dream come true for Vladimir and I. I personally look forward to producing and participating in more of these kinds of events, and we gathered some great feedback to put into future efforts. I envision a North American answer to the Park World Tour. Which city is next? I want to go.

A little digression, but what is the name of that amphitheater next to #6?

Um... Jerry Garcia, of course! The cabbie who delivered me to the site on Sunday asked, "you know of course that we here call this street Jerry Garcia Drive, and no matter what city maps tell you, you gotta mark it like that on your there orienteering map!" and I'll do. Once I get to putting the placenames on.

Thank you very much. :-)
Just ESE of the amphitheater, there appears to be large patch of apparently unusable green area just waiting for prominent, but tasteful placename.

Re: Steve Gregg, McLaren Park is a different animal than it was almost 10 years ago, more heavily patronized by local families, and a mecca for dog lovers from throughout the city looking for a large off-leash space (although that's not a plus for orienteers.) Folks are pretty mellow - I picked up all the controls and people were curious and friendly about the activity. Some of the controls were at edges of playgrounds getting a lot of visitors, and no problem. The courses had viewpoints of the bay, San Francisco downtown, and the ocean and neighborhoods around the city. It's such rich terrain, and we've barely scratched the surface of its possibilities. McLaren has a bright future.

The doggies were remarkably well-behaved during the event. Mid-weekdays feature professional dog walkers with seemingly dozens of animals, and that's when it can get hairy. Weekends are more for family enjoyment.

Kudos and thanks to Rex, Vladimir, and everyone else who helped out this past week. It was really a fantastic set of events and a great way to wrap up the 2009 Sprint Series.

I especially enjoyed the final two sprints at McLaren, but the campus events and Point Bonita made it feel like a true sprint festival, with all the different types of challenges you could expect from sprint courses.

For those who missed it, the 3D view of the Point Bonita map should give you a taste of the views (wind) you'll get next time!

I saw lots of fancypants cameras and heard of a lot of clicking, does anyone have any collections online of the photos they took from the events?

terraloco.com has a bunch posted

Jay Hann's:

http://jayhann.smugmug.com/Orienteering/BAOC-2009

And my Uncle Bob, hopefully soon.

Anybody else?