Nopesport

YHOA - JIRC Winners

This year’s junior inter-regional champs were hosted by the East Midlands. The individual races were held on Saturday at Carsington Pastures, a small area of open moorland near Matlock. The area was fast and runnable – Matt Crane managed to pre-run the M18 course in 4.5min/km – and had lots of intricate areas with pits from old mine workings.

On arriving at the area on Saturday morning we were greeted by an overcast day with a chilly wind. However, it was better conditions for running that the hot weather of the previous week, though not so nice for those spectating. All the courses started with a short control pick on a rocky hill covered in crags and intricate contour features. A couple of longer legs and track runs took them over to the other side of the road onto the main area. Several regions were lacking older runners due to exams and EYOC selections so quite a few M/W16s were running up over the weekend, and there were some very respectable results from some of the younger runners. However Duncan Coombs proved unbeatable yet again, and rose to the challenge set by Matt Crane, and although he didn’t quite make it, he wasn’t far off, clocking in at 5.1min/km. Rhodri Buffet followed only 2 mins behind, a very impressive result for him, having had the majority of this year’s season off due to injury.

Individual Results as follows:

M14
1. Peter Hodkinson EMOA
2. George Stevens YHOA
3. Jonathan Crickmore SEOA

M16
1. Jack Wood YHOA
2. Chris Smithard NWOA
3. Hector Haines YHOA

M18
1. Duncan Coombs SOA
2. Rhodri Buffett WOA
3. Iain Embrey WMOA

W14
1. Julia Blomquist SWOA
2. Abigail Longhursrt SOA
3. Delyth Darlington WOA

W16
1. Catherine Taylor NEOA
2. Anwen Darlington WOA
3. Alice Butt SWOA

W18
1. Becca Roberts NWOA
2. Rachel Smirthwaite SOA
3. Jess Halliday WMOA

The regional squads then headed back to their accommodation for the night, provided by The Manor School in Mansfield. There was plenty of time to get clean, eat and socialise with other squads before the Individual day prizegiving. After day 1, Yorkshire & Humberside were in the lead by a considerable margin with 227 points, followed by both Scotland and the West Midlands in joint 2nd on 203 pts, and North West 4th with 195.

Sunday morning was bright and sunny. There was an early start for the runners as the relays were to start at 9.30, at Sherwood Pines. The relay area was a contrast to the previous day’s area, being this time forested with a good path network. There were some closely fought competitions throughout the day, notably on W16 where there were 6 finishers within 6 seconds! In the end, Yorkshire & Humberside took a surprise victory in the girl’s relay, and West Midlands took the boys title.

Women
1. YHOA (Emberton, Haines, Sutherland)
2. WMOA (Garside, Batten, Halliday)
3. SWOA (Butt, Blomquist, Benham)

Men
1. WMOA (Hartmann, Gardner, Embrey)
2. SOA (McLeod, Thomson, Coombs)
3. YHOA (Haines, Birtwistle, Mercer)

Overall, YHOA kept hold of their lead by winning both the men’s and women’s overall prizes! They also managed to considerably increase their lead over Scotland in 2nd and West Mids in 3rd. It was nice to see a new team take the top spot from the old stalwarts of Scotland and North West who have between them taken the title for the last few years.

Overall Results
1. YHOA
2. SOA
3. WMOA
4. NWOA
5. EMOA
6. SEOA
7. SWOA
8. WOA
9. EAOA
10. NEOA
11. SCOA
12. NIOA

Most of all, a big thank you goes to EMOA for putting on the event this weekend. It was once again a great competition and a very enjoyable event.

Helen Hanstock