Discussion: orienteering meet in flooded Venice, Italy

Saw this photo on the paper today, and the "hand holding a paper" made it a suspicious orienteering character. Sure enough, there was a meet this past weekend. But it seems that the event was cancelled for reasons of public order because the runners splashing might cause a problem.

BTW: the high water, measured at 148 cm, is the 5th highest recorded. The highest, of 196 cm, occurred in November 4, 1966. A combination of high water inflow from rivers into the laguna, strong winds blowing from the Adriatic Sea preventing such waters to outflow from the laguna, and the moon's gravitational pull, are all contributing factors for Venice' s high water.

Some more photos

Also https://dipidydoo.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/come-he...

Definitely flooded. The race was allowing starts for just over an hour. The water began to lower throughout that race so by the time they stopped letting competitors start, the water was getting to a point where it wouldn't be much of a problem for the racers.

Sounds like I did well to pick last year to run Venice instead of this year (this year I was otherwise engaged, doing things like writing in newspapers about sea level rise).

The event in the New Forest in the uk on 4 nov was cancelled due to flooding. The ground was so wet from the summer rain, that even the moderate rain on the Saturday night caused the creeks to food and a large valley on the map to become impassable. No one got to start, the early starters had to stand around for half an hour while the organisers decided what they were going to do, only to be sent away.

From some of the pics shown it´s apparent that it may have been a bit of a challenge to easily notice the difference between regular streets and the canals...

(Hint: knee high = street, over your head = canal ?)

I almost fell in the canal a few times. luckily Venice has different colors of rocks to signify the canal. Also luckily enough the water was relatively clear.

When the announcement was made to the assembly hall about what was going on, it went something like "there are no start lists, punching start when you get to the front of the queue, it is very dangerous out there, be careful, don't fall in the canals"... The start triangle was around the corner from the start, meaning we had to pick up our maps, run down the alleyway and work out to turn left into the piazza, rather than running head-long into the canal whilst trying to read/fold the map. I was glad there was a marshall there to catch me!!

When I ran water was only to my ankles in a few places. Great race.

I think the highest the water was for me was just below my knees.

It was up to my calves in a few places. I think what really got the Venetians annoyed was people running by them without slowing down, splashing them, and causing a wake to flow back over the bulkheads and into peoples homes. I completely understand their point of view, we're visitors to their home, and in thei view treating it disrespectfully, hence the race being stopped early. I also see why of course you run as fast as you can in a race, come hell or high water. Otherwise, it's not really racing!

Anyways, I liked running around in the water, good time for me! :-)

I was in Venice for the event and think it was a very bad move to let it go ahead (I didn't run because I had a flight to catch at 3pm and the delayed starts and lousy weather made it high risk that I would miss my flight). The backlash from the citizens of Venice could jeopardise future races. Races like Venice need to work really hard to stay onside with the local population and to maintain their "license to operate". Venice doesn't really need the tourist dollars that orienteers bring in - there is no shortage of tourists and tour boats lined up to spend up big (plus orienteers are not really big-spenders by and large). Letting the race go ahead during the 5th worst flood in history and with knee deep water on much of the course was poor judgement from the organisers. Ironically, a friend who was one of the last starters before the race was called off said the streets were pretty much dry when he ran. The organisers could easily have waited until the early afternoon to run the event as the place drains really quickly (although admittedly there may have been other pressing factors such as how long they could keep access to the event centre). Those of us who had flights to catch would just have missed out. I just hope it is on next year ...