OpenTrack November Round-Up
Even in the athletics' quiet months, we've got all the action, from elite cross country to the earliest stirrings of the indoor season!
No matter the time of year, there are high-level competitions on OpenTrack, and November is cross-country heavy, with our Federation Management System users delivering top-tier competition across the globe.
In this update:
Sandy Saudi Arabian XC Championships
Competitive Cardiff Cross Challenge
British and Irish Masters Cross Country International
LUCA Open the Indoor Season
No two cross country courses are the same, and neither are any two cross country competitions, but we’re delighted that OpenTrack continues to deliver for organisers as they look to improve competitions for their athletes.
Sandy Saudi Arabian XC Championships
Held over two days on November 7th and 8th in Al Ahsa National Park, the Saudi National Cross Country Championships saw hundreds enjoy a tough course that had seen design input from Rio Olympian Charlie Grice and Mo Farah’s former coach Barry Fudge, who are both working to help develop endurance running in the country.
While those of us at OpenTrack HQ (and most Brits, for that matter) are used to cross country on mud, sand is much tougher — it isn’t just challenging to run on, it’s hard to breathe too!
To keep the dry dust under control, the organisers started by dumping a couple of trucks of water on the course, but by the time it came to run the senior races, the warm weather had boiled off the water and the course was quite dusty!
Competitive Cardiff Cross Challenge
The Cardiff Cross Challenge, like all Welsh Athletics competitions, lives on OpenTrack, and this year’s event on November 8th retained its Gold status on the World Cross Country Tour.
It was an international sweep of the podiums in both the men’s and women’s races, with a Kenyan lockout led by Mathew Kipsang in the men’s race, while 17-year-old Cynthia Chepkirui took the women’s race, with 2023 winner Megan Keith just off the podium in fourth.
Also at the event were the men’s and women’s trial races for the European Cross Country Championships mixed relay, and while both were hotly contested, the men’s was especially tight, with top five athletes covered by a single second.
British and Irish Masters Cross Country International
As the destination event for British and Irish cross country runners of a certain age, the 2025 edition of the BIMCCI brought hundreds of top masters athletes to Roundhay Park, Leeds on November 15th.
With team scoring as the focal point of the event, as Ireland and the four home nations faced off over the course of four races, OpenTrack’s chip timing integration came to the fore, working with JC Race Timing on the ground to deliver results and scoring updates every minute.
With OpenTrack handling team declarations, athlete down-aging, and all scoring calculations, our seamless integration meant we were able to deliver live team scores, medal tables, and all the reports and graphics needed for prizegiving instantly.
LUCA Open the Indoor Season
We’ve worked with London Universities and Colleges Athletics to deliver their championships for quite some time now, and the latest edition of the LUCA Indoor Championships was held on November 23rd.
In a hotly contested match making use of our versatile team scoring, KCL just beat UCL to take the crown in the first big indoor match of the season.
LUCA is a great example of one competition having many scoring tables - aside from the main team competition, the competition scores also have the United Hospitals Shield, for London’s medical schools to face off against each other, and an individual table to celebrate the individuals delivering the most points for their team!
We’ve been working hard behind the scenes on a number of big things in recent months, so keep your eyes on your inboxes over the coming weeks for more from OpenTrack!
As always, if you have any feedback, requests, or want help bringing your athletics into the 21st century, feel free to get in touch at info@opentrack.run.