Sheffield City Centre

The Arena will be in the Peace Gardens, with the adjacent Sheffield Town Hall hosting Bib collection and Enquries, offering the services listed here.

As the city centre is open to the public, please ensure that bags are stored safely whilst out on your run, and ideally have someone to keep an eye on the bags. An area within the Town Hall has been provided for those wanting to store their bags inside.

Club flags are permitted on the grass in the Arena, and we invite clubs to bring them closer to the podium for prizegiving, as indicated on the diagram.

British Orienteering will have an information tent, and Compass Point and Altra will also be in attendance.

Owing to the number of food outlets (cafes, supermarkets etc.) close to the Arena, there will be no additional event food traders.

Starts

There are two Starts, as detailed below. Please follow tapes to the Starts, and observe the out-of-bounds to avoid walking into the event area.

Start	Courses	Route	Details
Near Start	6 to 17	0.2 km	Due to the small area that the Near Start is in, please don’t arrive too early.
Far Start	1 to 5	2.2 km	A Model Area is provided close to the Far Start. Portable toilets will also be available here for competitors.

Map

Numerous sprint and urban events have occurred in Sheffield over the years, and maps can be seen on the SYO Routegadget. Urbans in 2019 and 2021 were the most recent events that visited parts of the JK Sprint area.

The map is to ISSprOM 2019-2 IOF Specification, unless otherwise stated. Scales are 1:4000, or enlarged to 1:3000 as appropriate for some courses, with a 2.5m contour interval. Survey and cartography by Ian Cooper (SYO) 2023/25. All maps are A4 size, and are digitally printed by BML on waterproof paper.

The JK25 Sprint is being held in Sheffield City Centre, with the finish being located adjacent to the Town Hall. Compared with university campus events, this event presents different challenges for competitors. There are some heavy traffic roads which are mapped as out of bounds and which can only be crossed by under or overpasses or at manned crossing points - other roads have traffic, including taxis and busses, and should be crossed with care. There are tram lines with 2 tracks that can be crossed with care (look both ways as trams are quiet) except where shown with olive green - the trams slow down approaching stops and are generally running slowly in the competition area. Sheffield is also promoting cycle use so there are dedicated cycle paths in many areas.

There is a central shopping area, some of which is pedestrianised, the World Snooker Championships are taking place in the competition area and football fans may also be in the centre as Sheffield United (whose ground is about 1.5km from the assembly area) kick off at 17:30, so there will be many users/pedestrians/cyclists who are not orienteers. Please be courteous and compete with care. Many courses will encounter some of the above obstacles so be prepared and act sensibly - remember that pedestrians, as well as orienteers, do not always act rationally. We cannot adjust the event timings because of traffic delays.

Sheffield also has much construction work underway into 2025. The event map will be as up to date as possible.

Otherwise this is a typical urban area with roads, paths, open spaces, steps and multi-level areas. There is much street furniture, such as flower pots, defibrillators, benches and signs, with only the larger more significant features individually mapped. Roads are shown with pavements, which may include cycle lanes where they are significant. There are significant slopes in Sheffield and where buildings and car parks have been built into slopes the contours reflect the relief of the running surface, so if the running surface is flat there are no contours.

Junior courses involve no road crossings except at manned crossings.

Bus shelters are not shown but larger tram shelters are mapped as canopies.

Underpasses under heavy traffic out of bounds roads (so there is only one running level) are mapped using the canopy symbol for clarity, with normal multilevel mapping where there are passable footpaths (see below for an example of the mapping, where there is an upper level passable footpath north of the out of bounds road).

There is a section of overhead tramway that has been mapped similar to below so that the ground level detail can be shown. The tramway is out of bounds on either side of the airbridge.

Example One

The climb is mainly up steps that are open to the sky.

1. steps up from pavement to first floor level passage, which is covered by a canopy
2. steps from first floor level west up to higher level
3. from underpass exit south up steps to street level or to west

Example Two

1. steps up from street level. There are then alternatives to reach the higher western street level: either
2. use a zigzag set of steps to then exit to the north (arrow 4 over an underpass) or south, or
3. head west up steps and through an underpass, where you can exit north up steps or carry straight on using an underpass under an out of bounds road

Provisional Course Details

Course	Classes	Start	Distance (km)	Climb (m)	Controls	Map Scale	Tech Diff
1	M18 M20E M21E	Far	4.0	45	24	1:4000	3
2	W18 W20E W21E	Far	3.6	45	21	1:4000	3
3	M35 M40 Men Open	Far	3.6	45	30	1:4000	3
4	M45	Far	3.5	45	19	1:3000	3
5	M16 W16	Far	3.2	30	23	1:3000	3
6	M50	Near	3.3	30	21	1:3000	3
7	M55 W35	Near	3.3	30	20	1:3000	3
8	M14 W14	Near	3.0	30	20	1:3000	3
9	M60 Women Open	Near	2.8	30	22	1:3000	3
10	W40 W45	Near	2.8	30	16	1:3000	3
11	M65 W50	Near	2.7	30	17	1:3000	3
12	M70	Near	2.3	20	16	1:3000	3
13	W55 W60	Near	2.3	20	17	1:3000	3
14	M75 W65 W70	Near	2.0	20	16	1:3000	3
15	M80 M85 M90 M95 W75 W80 W85 W90 W95	Near	2.0	20	16	1:3000	3
16	M12 W12 Novice Adult	Near	1.9	20	20	1:3000	3
17	M10 W10 Novice Junior	Near	1.8	10	16	1:3000	2

Clothing & Footwear

Shorts and running vests are permitted for this race. It can be muddy in places and therefore shoes with some grip would be appropriate, however shoes with spikes and metal dobs are not allowed.

Acknowledgements