Published 16th October 2024

Last weekend 9 SYO juniors represented England at the Junior Home Internationals at Sheringham Park in Norfolk.

The weekend began with the individual race, where there were some fabulous results from our juniors:

M14 – 2^nd Maxwell, 5^th Nathan
M16 – 8^th Oscar, 11^th Caspar
W14 – 1^st Hannah
W16 – 3^rd Anna, 4^th Ella, 7^th Charlotte
W18 – 2^nd Freya

Despite England’s best efforts we finished 2^nd, 4 points behind Scotland after the individual.

Post race, the English team headed briefly to the beach in Cromer before returning to the accommodation at Overstrand Hall.  The evening’s entertainment was a fabulous ceilidh, which was well received by the athletes.

Sunday’s relays saw us return to the same arena. Courses were short and racing fast & furious. Maxwell’s team (along with Marcus and Tommy) were involved in an exciting sprint finish with Scotland to take the win; while Oscar’s team (along with Jamie & Dan) took a well earned bronze. Although Scotland won the girl’s relay; the English girls ran strongly to finish 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th! Well done to Anna (along with Bethan & Josie) whose team was 2^nd , Ella (along with Eden & Daisy)whose team was 3^rd and Hannah & Freya (along with Katie), whose team was 4^th. These excellent results meant a win in the relay competition for England and a draw overall on points. Sadly the tiebreak rules award the win to the team with the most first places so this meant Scotland took the overall win. Ireland was 3^rd and Wales 4^th.

A huge thank you to Norfolk and Suffolk Orienteering Clubs for putting on a fabulous competition and to England’s team managers Will and Katherine.

Published 1st October 2024

The Yorkshire & Humberside Squad had a very fabulous weekend at the Junior Inter-regional Competition and came away clutching a host of trophies!

The individual was held at Mallard’s Pike in the Forest of Dean. Competitors reported on a lovely runnable forest but it was very easy to get caught out in the myriad of ditches! All our athletes performed superbly but particular congratulations to our team scorers:

M14 – Maxwell Groom 6^th, Nathan Peel 17^th

M16 – Oscar Peel 1^st, Lawrence Hodgson 6^th

M18 – Ewen Wilkinson (AIRE) 21^st, Evan Jenkinson 23^rd

W14 – Bethan Buckley (AIRE) 1^st, Lucy 3^rd

W16 – Ella Baxter 1^st, Anna Todd 4^th

W18 – Lotte Sykes 7^th, Alice Pieters 8^th (running up)

These results were enough to retain the Individual Runners Up trophy! Bethan also won the outstanding performance award for her 5 minute win on W14!

After the individual competition, we all transferred to the Mendip Activity Centre for overnight camping! Despite the cold, the juniors enjoyed a great night of socialising.

The relays were held in the grounds of the activity centre, which was very convenient and enabled a very early start. YHJS are pretty good at relays and we didn’t disappoint on this occasion, scooping up 3 podium positions. Congratulations to:

Girls – 2^nd Katie Buckley (AIRE), Bethan Buckley (AIRE) & Ella Baxter

            3^rd Anna Todd, Hannah Chapman, Lotte Sykes

Boys – 2^nd Lawrence Hodgson, Maxwell Groom, Oscar Peel

            8^th Robbie Lightfoot, Nathan Peel, James Bryant

A special mention to Will Preston who returned 1^st in the ad-hoc and to Lotte Sykes and Ewen Wilkinson (AIRE) who recorded the fastest times on their legs.

These results meant we picked up the Runners Up trophy in the girls overall competition, the Runners Up trophy in the relay competition and the Runners Up overall trophy! We are very good at being Runners Up! Here’s hoping we can beat the Scots in one of these categories in the Lakes next year……

Published 9th September 2024

This weekend our team of 32 juniors, aged 11 to 18, travelled to the Lakes to compete in the Peter Palmer Relays. The teams arrived early evening and settled into the tents that had been pre-erected for them. They enjoyed fish & chips, rounders, football and socialising all against a stunning Lakeland backdrop. Thankfully they escaped the torrential downpours that plagued South Yorkshire this weekend!

The 6 leg Peter Palmer relays kicked off at 5am in the pitch black! We fielded 3 teams in this category, including 2 in the Joan George trophy for younger teams. From the beginning, the action was very exciting for supporters as the lead changed several times though the competition. The 4 leg daybreak bowl began an hour later, where we also had 3 teams in action. Supporting was enhanced by a run through 2/3 through the course and the use of GPS trackers for all competitors.

Our juniors performed brilliantly scooping an array of prizes. Congratulations to:

Peter Palmer Relay

2^nd place – SYO Killer BEEs – Oscar, Lawrence, Freya, Will, Hannah and James
3^rd place & winners of the Joan George – SYO BEE Happy – Ella, Robbie, Charlotte, Nathan, Jack W & Florrie and Caspar
7^th place & 3^rd place in the Joan George – SYO Busy BEES – Maxwell, Anna, Lucy, Louis, Zac & Jago and Joseph

Daybreak Relay

1^st place - SYO Bumble BEES – Pasco, Sophie, Adrian and Alexandra
2^nd place – SYO BEEs Knees – Penny, Jack B, Sam and Rhys
SYO Worker Bees – Freddie, Abi, Finn & Stanley (team mispunched but some great individual runs).

By 8.30am all the teams were finished and the juniors enjoyed bacon butties and the prize-giving before long journeys home!

A huge thank you to Jacky, Dom and all the parent drivers and supporters and WCOC for putting on such a fantastic event.