Published 15th July 2012

The World Masters Orienteering Championships (WMOC) was held in central Germany earlier this month. Peter Gorvett won the M65 sprint final in 13:05 (for 2.7 km) with a significant margin of 25 seconds to second place. Peter is pictured here on the M/W65 podium with Jean Lochhead and Hilary Palmer who were 1st and 2nd in W65. Nick Barrable was 4th in the M35 class for the sprints, though improved this for the Long final to finish in 2nd.

Results Photo © Anne Salisbury.

Published 15th July 2012

Aidan Smith was selected to represent Great Briatin for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) back in April and, along with the 11 other juniors, has been competing in the championships over the past week.

Last Sunday they competed in the sprint event around Košice city in Slovakia - where the championships are based. The weather was much better than that in the UK of late, the late starters had to cope with a high of 34oC. The area was very fast with results done to 1/10th of a second. Aidan finished in 73rd, 1:41 minutes down on the Russian winner.

The following day was the long event, west of Košice. Starting relatively early, Aidan avoided the torrential rain and thunderstorms which affected the later starters to finish a credible 68th. The British team did well, with the majority finishing in the top 100. Lucy Butt (SARUM) had an excellent run to finish 7th.

After a rest day on Tuesday, the middle qualifiers were held on Wednesday North East of Košice. Half the team managed to qualify for the A finals, with the other half in the B finals, including Aidan. There was frustration as 2 of the team missed out on the A finals by seconds. The team had an excellent day at the middle finals including Aidan who achieved 4th on the B final.

The final event of the JWOC were the relays. With the loss of Jonny Crickmore from GBR1 due to injury, GBR2 (Aidan, Tom Fellbaum, Duncan Birtswistle) stepped up to the mark and had a fantastic run to finish 13th overall. The women's GBR1 also did well an finished in a credible 9th.

Results Photo © Michal Eliáš

Published 25th June 2012

Photos © Wendy Carlyle

The past weekend 10 SYO juniors ran for the Yorkshire and Humberside Junior Squad (YHJS) in the Junior Inter-Regional Championships (JIRCs) at Sandringham.

There was plenty of sunshine around for the individual event, though the recent rains had caused the bracken to grow to head-height in most places. Winning times throughout the weekend were longer than expected due to the vegetation. YHJS did well and finished 3rd for this first day, with notable runs from Aidan (1st), Zac (5th), Jake & Michael (=7th) and Louise (6th).

In contrast to the individual day, the relays started in torrential ran, thunder and lightning with many runners getting soaked. On her first JIRCs selection Pippa made it into the first YHJS girls team, a great achievement, and came 5th overall. The first YHJS boys team also finished in 5th place with Aidan running the fastest last leg of all boys teams.

Overall the YHJS finished 3rd, for the 5th consecutive year, with Scotland (SOA) coming 1st. Overall, individual and relay results. Next year the JIRCs moves to Dorset/Hampshire.

Those SYO members that were too old or young to be selected for the JIRCs attended the annual SYO BBQ at Tim Tett's house. Before the BBQ there was a short sprint event around the Walkley area accompanied with a few rain showers. A few people were caught out on the Long course with a numbering mix up, but this didn't really affect the overall results. [More to follow]

Published 12th April 2012

This year's JK provided some good and not so good orienteering - the sprint billed as "probably the best urban area in Britain" wasn't - some said that the Sheffield areas were better.  What looked tricky at first sight offered little in the way of route choice as there always seemed to be a direct route through the flats.  SYO did however have some success with Aidan Smith 2nd on M18E, Oli Johnson 4th on M21E, Martin Ward 1st on M45 (although Dave Peel was non comp and was faster), Paul Bradbury (he doesn’t get a mention very often) 5th on M55 – perhaps he’s found his o’ing forte, Pete Gorvett 4th on M65, Louise 4th on W14, Jenny Peel 2nd on W40, Alex Kilcoyne 3rd on Women's Open.

The first of the main individual days on Dunalistair was good but a poor assembly field meant everyone stayed in the car park and the latter part of most courses was poor when compared to the early sections of most courses. The second day on Craig a Barns was magnificent with typical Scottish forest with plenty of contour detail and some reasonable planning – and it didn’t rain on either day! SYO successes were perhaps fewer than in previous years but notable performances were Dane Blomquist (new recruit to SYO) 1st on M16, Aidan Smith 1st by 10 mins on M18E, Oli Johnson 4th on M21E, Andy Preston 5th on M35L, Mark Chapman 5th on M45L, Pete Gorvett 1st on M65, Brian Shaw 1st on M70, Katherine 4th on W16, Amanda Leo 5th on W20E, Rachel Rothman 5th on W21E, Louise Preston 1st on W21V, Jenny Peel 2nd on W40, Wendy Billing 1st on W50S.

The Relay area was below par for Scotland and unfortunately SYO were below par too. The only notable performance being the M16s (Dane, Michael Adams and Jake Field) coming 2nd on M48-. Hopefully the British Relays in a couple of weeks will prove better for SYO.

Tim Tett, Team Captain.