The British Orienteering Long and Relay Championships took place last weekend (28th Feb/1st Mar) in South Wales.
The Long was held at Carreg Goch, an area of high limestone moorland in the Black Mountain, that some people will remember from Day 3 of Croeso 2024. Using an area like this in February is clearly risky, but the organisers got away with it; despite wet and windy days before and after, Saturday itself was calm and mostly sunny, though half an hour of rain/hail/snow around noon was very unpleasant for those caught in it, and no doubt had an effect on the results. The start and finish were both situated quite a distance from the event centre, so with no run-in commentary the event didn’t have the normal atmosphere associated with a major event; the focus was on the food sellers and phones rather than cheering on club finishers. An excellent map and good visibility meant that the navigation was easier in practise than on paper (or should that be Teslin), and the planners had been careful to situate controls on the edges of the many sink holes rather than in the bottoms which made it both fairer and easier. Courses for the older age groups, women in particular, were on the short side; not the fault of the planners but of the “official” course length ratios which don’t seem to take into account the type of terrain – older competitors being comparatively slower in forest than in a (mostly) runnable open area.
BL had two medal winners, Karen in 2nd W60 and Stella 3rd W70. Natalie was close, finishing 4th on W50.#
Mud everywhere
The relays were at Margam Country park near Port Talbot. As you might guess from the name, the terrain was technically straightforward (Orange standard on the whole), with the emphasis on speed, not mispunching and, as the day went on, negotiating the deep and slippery muds. The rain held off until after the prize-giving but even so the arena turned from a damp green field to a brown swamp over the course of the day.
A selection of BL finishers
The three BL teams all ran well. The W50 team of Natalie, Julie and Karen were in the lead from start to finish and are now the proud winners of a very large stone trophy. The W60 team (Christine G, Christine K and Stella) were also on the podium coming third in W60 (despite two members being W70s) . The M60s (Keith, John and Dan) were 6th in the very competitive M60 class.
Overall, it was a well well organised, enjoyable event and BL came away with 8 medals and enough Welsh Cakes to keep us going for quite a while.
Border Liners Orienteering Club 