News
News
SYO Juniors 3rd at Yvette Baker Trophy final
Congratulations to SYO's juniors! In their first appearance in the Final of the Yvette Baker Trophy, they managed 3rd place, and were only 2 points (equivalent to just a handful of seconds) away from second place.
Final team scores were: 1st OD 892, 2nd DEE 874, 3rd SYO 872, 4th SO 862, 5th WAOC 836, 6th WCH 835, 7th SOC 789, 8th NOC 729.
Having been very excited to qualify for the final of the Yvette Baker Trophy for the first time, the reality of a day trip to Crawley began to sink in (at least for the parents involved). As we met at Meadowall in driving rain at 6.45am (not a good time for teenagers!) to catch the coach, there were a few of us who wondered what we were doing. But, although the assembly field and run in were the sort of deeply squelchy, sticky mud that I only seem to enounter in the south, the sun shone in Crawley. Our team of juniors included Rachael, competing on the Orange on her first ever solo orienteering course, Tom, on the Light Green, who had only done a very few courses, Jack with an injured hand heavily bandaged and wrapped up in a plastic bag to protect it from the weather, Ronan, who was extremely excited all day and didn's sleep a wink on the coach, as well as some past and present British and JK champions.
Everyone got safely round their courses with no mispunches which was a massive achievement. With early starts, SYO took an early lead but gradually slipped to 3rd. All our runners were in so we could do nothing but bite our nails and hope. As the prizegiving proceeded (there were prizes of sweets for each team that took part) we realised that we were at least fourth and then there was the announcement - 4th place South......Downs. SYO gave SO a massive cheer at that point and then our team proudly received the shield for 3rd place and a large box of chocolates. Thanks to the SYO Committee for supporting the cost of the coach - parents were extremely glad not to have to drive and it really did help generate a good team atmosphere.
ShUOC City Chase 2009 - Sheffield City
A great new map of Sheffield City centre was used for the ShUOC (Sheffield University) City Chase event on Saturday. The event consisted of a prologue round followed by a chase, which made for exciting head-to-head racing in an often complex urban environment. Though the weather was wet and windy, this actually helped to reduce the number of people out shopping on Saturday, so crowds of shoppers weren't a problem for runners. Unfortunately a couple of controls around West One had to be removed during the prologue event, but race times were adjusted after the affected legs were removed.
The event also (temporarily) lost a control when a member of the public reported a suspicious object, and thinking it may be a bomb the fire brigade turned up to remove it! Despite these problems the event was a great success.
In the Mens Open SYO's Lead Coach Graham Gristwood won, ahead of Oli Johnson in second. SYO also took 2nd and 3rd places in the Womens Open with Grace Crane and Jenny Johnson respectively. Alex Kilcoyne took 2nd place in the Womens Junior race. Simon Bradbury, who had over a minutes lead after the Mens Junior prologue race, unfortunately mis-punched in the chase. Martin Ward won the Mens Vet race, and Colin Lynch just grabbed 2nd place in a sprint finish. Bill Hanley narrowly missed winning Mens Super Vet (in another sprint finish).
The race was also the final event in the Nopesport Urban League. Alex Kilcoyne took 4th place in the Womens Junior League, and last years Mens Super Vet winner Peter Gorvett also finished 4th this year. Martin Ward won the Mens Vet league, but only by 1 point, to retain the brick trophy for the Urban League.
British School Championships
Several SYO juniors took part in the BSOA championships at Druridge Bay in Northumberland this weekend. Well done in particular to Aidan Smith (Gold) and Katherine Hall (Bronze) who came home with medals. Well done also to Simon Bradbury who was only three seconds away from third position in a closely contested race. Alex Hall (5th) , Zac Field (6th), Yasmin Field (6th) and Jake Field (7th) also had strong runs. Full results and pictures.
SYO crowned club of the year
South Yorkshire Orienteers won the category "Club of the Year" at last night's South Yorkshire Sports Awards held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The award recognises not just the perfomance achievements of the club but also the club's hard work behind the scenes to develop their sport and get more people involved.
Congratulations to SYO! Particular praise must go to the committee for guiding the club to such recognition, to Melinda for writing our bid, to all the event officials who have put on events for the club, to all volunteers who have helped in any capacity, to all coaches who have helped to create a club that people want to join, and to all those people who have competed for SYO over the last year. This really is a whole club effort.
SYO members help England to a VHI win
The Veterans Home International was held last weekend, with the relays on Longshaw and the individual on Eyam Moor. Four SYO members were part of the victorious England team that won both the relay and the individual competitions. Scotland were placed second, Wales third and Ireland fourth. SYO also had runners competing for the Scottish and Welsh teams.
