Nopesport

This year the JOK sprint was held very late in the season, inconjunctoin with the biggest event in the New Forest, SOC's November Classic National Event.

For those who dont know, the JOK sprint is a chasing start sprint/short race. The prologue is run like any other race in the morning, then in the afternoon there is a chasing start, first over the line wins.

Numbers were down this year, due to extreme southern remoteness. The prologue was wan by none other than orienteering great, Ian Nixon (Leeds Uni), with veterans Clive Hallet (BOK) in 2nd and Tim Tett (SYO) 3rd. Everything was still to race for. Ian would easily be visible in the open heath of Hampton Ridge, just 17 seconds ahead of Clive. Tim Tett had a whole minute to catch up on the SOC reject yet mistakes would be a plenty in such a technical area.

Clive caught Ian at the 5th control, a 1 second lead. This grew to 2 seconds at 6, and back down to 1 second at 7, clive pulled away again, now 2 seconds ahead of Ian at 8, he held this lead through 9, however Ian managed to claw back a 3 second lead at 10, the penultimate control. It would now come down to the sprint finish, an event which Ian prides himself in, and for good reason. With a tremendous effort the Leeds Uni student took 12 seconds out of old man Hallet in 2nd place. A 15 second victory. Tim Tett ran seconds faster than Ian and Clive, and finished 3rd. The fastest time of the final was by Julian Simpson (OD) pulling up 1 place into 4th ahead of Niall Bourke, also of Leeds Uni.

For full results see the JOK website