With Storm Amy scheduled to arrive in Northern England and Scotland on Friday, last weekend’s orienteering was looking interesting. There were two events on the calendar: a WCOC Cumbrian Galoppen at Leaps Beck near Ennerdale, or full weekend of orienteering (3 events) around Stirling. In the end, everything went ahead without disruption but there must have been a few worried organisers and controllers around.
Sixteen BL members competed at the Galoppen at Leaps Beck, in windy but generally dry weather. Top results came from James, second on Brown, and Owain and Stella, first and second respectively on Green. BL member Paul was the controller (his first Regional event) – the event appeared to go without a hitch despite the weather-related concerns so well done to him. There is just one event remaining in the series, at Skelghyll Woods near Ambleside, on 2nd November. Results and Routegadget here
The Scottish weekend takes a bit of explaining. It was a combination of the Junior European Champs (JEC), the Veterans Home International (VHI) and Spectator events. The first two were for selected teams, but the last was open to anyone who wanted an opportunity to run on the same courses (and in theory, if not practise, spectate at the internationals). Keith was there as a member of the England team at the Home International, while Christine, Karen and Dan were running as spectators.
On Friday afternoon there was a Sprint at Stirling University. The international juniors ran in extremely wet weather but by the time the rest of us got out the rain had reduced though the wind gusts was getting very strong –acorns and conkers raining down were an unexpected hazard. It was a great area for a sprint – a mix of strange shaped buildings on steep grassy slopes, woodland, parkland and lakes.
It was very windy over Friday night and Saturday’s forest, Loch Ard, definitely had a few additional fallen trees (to add to the tens of thousands already there). The terrain was extremely tough both physically and technically, with only the very top international M18s and M20s managing under 10 mins/km. Keith had a great run in the VHI coming second in M65, just 90 seconds down on the winner. The spectators ran after the main events which meant that a lot of tracks had been made in the forest; the downside was that they were often calf deep in mud and better avoided. Another obstacle faced by spectators was trying to get round before courses closed. Overall, it was a really challenging and enjoyable event (though maybe not to everyone’s taste).
Sunday was a relay for both the Juniors and the VHI, with spectators getting the chance to run one of the relay legs from a mass start after the main event. The forest, although adjacent to Loch Ard, was very different – largely runnable with lots of paths and tracks but still plenty of scope for mistakes. Christine became an unofficial Scot for the day, replacing an injured member of one of the VHI teams. The courses all included a spectator control that involved crossing a ditch – maybe the top elites could leap across in a single bound but everyone else ended up trying not to fall over in knee deep mud in front of an audience.
Overall results for the VHI saw Scotland and England tied on the same score but Scotland were declared the winners as they had more individual course winners.
In JEC there were 5 podium positions (top 6) for Great Britain, including one gold medal (Emily Atkinson in the W18 Sprint).
Full results and Routegadget can be seen here
Border Liners Orienteering Club 