Nopesport

The Sorlandsgallopen was held in and around Stavern and Larvik in Southern Vestfold, Norway last week.

This event has all the hall marks of a Mini-O-Ringen with camp site and entertainment but the scoring systems is more like the Scottish 6 Days with the best 4 out of 6 days to count and a maximum of 4000 points to be scored.

Day 1 & 2 were based around a ski stadium in Svarstad meaning the terrain was steep with very runnable pine forests. Day 3 & 4 had much more undulating terrain with the runnability varying too. The two last races were in the famous Bøkeskogen (Beech tree forest) virtually in the town of Larvik, all of which meant a good taste of what Norway can offer all in one week!

A handful of hardy Brits took part in the competition and enjoyed some good weather & good orienteering. Among the GB contenders were Jack Wood, Hector Haines and Chris Smithard, all members of the Start Squad, plus Dan “Neville” Hartmann who all competed in the H16 class. All the boys withstood the local pressure well with just a couple of hiccups so it was perhaps surprising that the final points order saw Hector 5th on 3615, Dan 10th on 3311, Jack 12th on 3307 and Chris 14th on 3207.

Hector’s sister Chloe also managed a top ten finish being 8th with 3598 in the D14 class.

There was also a battle of the dads that saw Mike Smithard in 7th of 33 with 3480 in the H55 and Peter Haines 17th of 72 with an almost identical 3483 in one of the H45 classes.

In the D60 class Marion MacCormick for Badenoch and Strathspey, finished 7th on 3031 and team mate Norma Atherton 18th on 840; Mike Atherton managed 24th with 2525 in H 60 and Eric Langmuir 20th with 3024 in H70.

Full details can be found at the Sørlandsgaloppen website

Sample of day 3 & 4 terrain