If you thought the Barbican’s three levels were tricky to orienteer through, then you haven’t seen anything yet – there will a race taking place in and around the Westfield Stratford City retail complex in east London, on Sunday 15 April. The race will be over five levels of the indoor shopping centre area, plus the surrounding outside area.
The race is being organised by Josh Jenner, his website has full details and entries are open. I’m doing the map, which will be a 1:4000 A4 full-colour ISSOM map on waterproof paper. As you would expect, there are a number of special measures need for the event. The event is pre-entry only and it will be a mass start 45 minute score, with five “waves” starting between 9am and 10am – the early finish is needed to ensure that orienteers will have the space to run in, before the crowds arrive for the midday opening of the larger stores. Stratford City gets amazingly busy inside on a Sunday afternoon!
This will be the closest you will be able to get to the Olympic Park on an orienteering race for a few years to come – the park surrounds the triangular site on two sides, with the Athletes Villages to the north and the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatic Centre to the west. It’s the first orienteering race to take place here (the development has only been open for a few months) but it may well also be the last ever race here – with Sunday trading laws due to be relaxed for the Olympics and possibly becoming permanent after them, there may never be another opportunity to run around Westfield Stratford City free of crowds!
4 replies on “Five Level Orienteering – Stratford City Race”
will all 5 levels be shown on the map – i.e 5 maps side by side or 1 map somehow showing all levels?
Yes, the main running levels will be shown – on five maps side by side (or actually above/below each other)
Wow, that looks like a fun course, has permission been given by Westfield for this, what time does the centre usually open?
Hi Tom, yes the race is being held is association with the support of Westfield’s event’s team. The centre’s main stores open at midday on Sunday, although the smaller shops and some restaurants, coffee shops etc are open earlier. Other days of the week they are open much earlier (10am weekdays, 9am Saturdays)