Published 14th September 2016

Day 5 Swiss O Week

Members of SYO travelled far and wide over the summer to enjoy their passion for orienteering.

First on the international multi-day event calendar was the Swiss O Week in St Moritz. Only the Tryners and Nick Barrable were there from SYO but there was a fairly large British contingent. The stunning scenery, mostly gorgeous weather, efficient organisation and challenging orienteering combined to produce an excellent (if somewhat costly) multi-day competition. A noteworthy difference to the UK multi-day events was a special evening prize giving for each of the days. Freya was delighted to achieve a podium position in D10 on 2 days; while Nick went a step further with 4 podium positions and a 3^rd place overall.

The following week gave a host of different multi-day options. Perhaps the most prestigious multi-day event with 20, 000 competitors is the Swedish O-Ringen. This year it was held in the mountainous ski region of Salen and was unusual in that most of the areas were on open fells rather than the traditional Swedish forest. The Marstons and Coopers of SYO attended and reported back on an enjoyable week of orienteering though there were no podium positions in the very stiff international competition.

Meanwhile, closer to home Wales hosted the Croeso 2016 – 5 days of orienteering competition in beautiful South Wales. Whilst the weather was rather wet at times, feedback on the event praised the friendly event team, stunning views and great variety of terrain.  As this event was closer to home, it is not surprising that there were a fairly large number of SYO members there. Congratulations to overall prize winners Dom Dakin 3^rd M16, Nick Barrable 3^rd M21L, Tony Udris 2^nd M45S and Pippa Dakin 2^nd W21L.

Nick Barrable & Pippa Dakin on the podium at Croeso

Another multi-day competition taking place in the same week was the Slovenian OO Cup. This year the event was centred on the ski village of Kranska Gora, although 3 of the 5 events took place out of Slovenia – 2 in Northern Italy and 1 in Austria. The gorgeous alpine scenery, friendly vibe, low key organisation, relatively low prices and fiendishly technical orienteering proved very attractive to our members and there was a large SYO contingent. Well done to Dave Peel (2^nd M50), Jenny Peel (1^st W45) and Nick Lightfoot (3^rd M50 Ultimate, where paths are removed from the map).

Jenny Peel 1st W45 OO Cup, Slovenia

The following week, many SYO members then continued down to the 4 day Bubo Cup on the island of Cres in Croatia. Due to the high temperatures starts were early, allowing competitors to pursue more traditional holiday pursuits for the rest of the day. There were more podium positions for SYO with Dave and Jenny Peel winning their respective classes and 3^rd for Kim Baxter in W21E.

The summer of orienteering ended, as tradition dictates, with the White Rose in North Yorkshire. Whilst the weather and terrain perhaps doesn’t quite live up to the standards of some of the other multi-day events, plenty of SYO members were attracted by the opportunity to enjoy a social weekend of camping and orienteering in Dalby Forest. There were podium positions and White Rose mugs galore for SYO.

1st & 2nd for SYO in the Young Junior Women Sprint

Sprint: Dom Dakin (1^st JM), Alex Elliott (3^rd JW), Pete Tryner (1^st VM), Pete Guillaume (2^nd UVM), Euan Tryner (1^st YJM), Imogen Pieters (1^st YJW) & Freya Tryner (2^nd YJW)

Individual Combined: Megan Hill (1^st W10B), Alice Pieters (2^nd W10B), Freya Tryner (1^st W12A), Yasmin Field (2^nd W18L), Jenny Johnson (1^st W35L), Clare Baker (3^rd W35L), Rosie Field (3^rd W50S), Judith Guillaume (2^nd W60S), Sheila Sprot (3^rd W65L), Monika Cooper (1^st W70S), Robbie Lightfoot (2^nd M10A), Jamie Lightfoot (2^nd M12A), Daniel Hill (2^nd M12B), Euan Tryner (3^rd M14A), Dom Dakin (2^nd M16A), Joe Field (3^rd M16A), Jake Field (1^st M20L), Tony Udris (1^st M45S), Dean Field (1^st M50S), Nick Lightfoot (1^st M55L).

Night: Dom Dakin (1^st JM), Joe Field (2^nd JM), Paul Bradbury (2^nd SVM).

1st & 2nd for SYO in the Junior Men night event

If you fancy trying a multi-day event for the first time, then the bi-annual Scottish 6 Days is a good place to start. Deeside 2017 runs from 30th July to 5th August and is centred on the town of Ballater.

Published 24th August 2016

Well done to Pippa Dakin, who earlier in the summer, represented GB at the European Youth Orienteering Championships. Read her report on her experience.......

This year the competition was held in Poland and based in the city of Jaroslaw. There were three races in total; Long, Relay and Sprint.

Before we travelled out the team had spent time familiarising ourselves with the terrain that we would be faced with by looking at maps of the area and planning courses for each other. Only the Long area had a previous map and so one of the GB coaches created a map of the Sprint area for our use! To further help with preparations as what to expect from the terrain, when we arrived we had the chance to walk around the town where the Sprint was to be run and also participate in the model event on the Eastern part of the area where the Long was to be held. We knew after the trainings that it was going to be a tough few days ahead of us with temperatures hitting 30 degrees Celsius as well as the extremely physical terrain.

Being my last year at the competition I had hopes that all my training, both physical and technical, in the lead up to the competition would enable me to post pleasing results, unfortunately this was not exactly the case.

In the Long race I made a number of technical mistakes and was also feeling very physically drained due to the heat and tough terrain. This led me to a 34^th place and out of the top 20 finish I had hoped for, 6 minutes behind 20^th position.

For the Relay it had been decided that I was to run in a mixed relay and was on first leg, my preferred leg! This race I was much cleaner than the previous day with only one technical slip up and was much happier afterwards.

The Sprint was the last race and I was feeling very tired and not as sprightly as I had hoped. This meant the whole course was a struggle to get up to speed, and even though technically relatively clean I ended up in 36^th place.

I had a great time in Poland and I am very grateful for the financial help I received - this helps me to continue orienteering to high levels and rely less heavily on my parents for financial support. I have learnt many lessons from the EYOC 2016 experience about where the faults are in my orienteering, specifically in technique and how to approach racing and can now work on these so that in the future I can achieve that top 20 placing that I have set my sights on!  

Published 28th July 2016

We are sorry to have to report that Ian Wainwright died in the early hours of Wednesday last week.

Ian was passionate about running, for many years running every day.  He was active in SYO both as competitor and official before he broke his neck in 2009 in an unfortunate accident.  He still completed a section of the Olympic Torch Relay in 2012.

Quoting from Hallamshire Harriers' Facebook page:

"Everyone who encountered Ian will remember his forthright and honest views, his compassion, generosity, support, love of life and his sense of humour. Ian’s philosophy of life is aptly summed up in the words of one of his great heroes, Emil Zatopek: ‘Great is the victory, but the friendship of all is greater.’"

Ian’s funeral will take place at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium on Thursday 4 August at 12.30 pm.  To anyone attending, could you please follow this link so his family are aware of how many are attending, thank you.
https://m.facebook.com/events/1005869532865656?refid=12

Our thoughts are with Margaret and the rest of the family.