Nopesport

The selectors have released the British Team for the World Championships, held this year in Västerås, Sweden. The past 3 days have seen the selection races held around Stockholm and 20 men and 15 women made the journey to compete and try to win their place at WOC, now just 32 days away.

Saturday started off with the sprint and Graham Gristwood made his mark with an 8 second win from Matt Speake, a further 10 seconds clear of Dan Marston. This result saw the top 2 selected for the Sprint along with Jon Duncan who took 4th place just ahead of Ewan McCarthy. A great result for GG, who is still a junior, given some injury problems this year. In the Women's race it was Sarah Rollins winning comfortably by 13 seconds from both Hannah Wootton & Helen Bridle who were only seperated by .2 of a second. All 3 were selected for the Sprint at WOC.

Sunday saw the Classic race with almost 9km for the women and 13km for the men. Heather Monro showed her lack of racing this year has clearly not affected her orienteering or her fitness, leading from the start to win by almost 6 minutes from Helen Winskill with Sarah Rollins a further 3 minutes down. Yet another great result came from Alison O'Neil in 4th place who, despite a few misses, was well clear of 5th & 6th placed Gillian Godfree and Rachel Elder. Alison's result was enough to see her selected for the Classic along with Heather Monro & Helen Winskill. This is a fantastic opportunity for the young Edinburgh student who of course took home Bronze from the classic of JWOC this year (as well as 4th place in the middle) and will be living in Stockholm for the next 4 months as part of her degree course.

The men's race was a somewhat closer affair, Dan Marston winning by 36 seconds from Stephen Palmer who looked to have the race won before blowing his 1:15 minute lead on the last control. Ewan McCarthy continued his fine Swedish form with 3rd place just 4 seconds clear of Oli Johnson. 5th & 6th places went to Jon Duncan & Jamie Stevenson WC™ respectively, Jamie almost 8 minutes down after a 2 minute then 4 minute loss on the 8th & 9th controls. This was obviously a much harder race to select from and again, it was the top 2 plus another who were selected, Dan, Stephen and Jamie all to be running the classic at WOC.

Yesterday's middle distance race saw another win for Heather Monro, 2 minutes clear of Hannah Wootton and Sarah Rollins with Helen Winskill just behind them. The top 3 in this instance selected for the middle at WOC. In the men's it was Oli Johnson who won from Dan & Jamie with JD & Ewan following. Again this one saw the top 3 selected for the WOC race.

For the relay team, the winning (well bronze medal winning) formula has been kept for the Men's team with JD, Dan & JSWC™ going out looking to improve on the fantastic bronze medal of last year while the women's team sees Heather, Sarah and Helen Winskill out to improve on the 6th place performance from Switzerland.

Full team:
(S- Sprint, M-Middle, C-Classic, R-Relay)

Men:
Jon Duncan (S/R)
Graham Gristwood (S)
Oli Johnson (M)
Daniel Marston (C/M/R)
Stephen Palmer (C)
Matthew Speake (S)
Jamie Stevenson (M/C/R)
Reserve:
Ewan McCarthy

Women:
Helen Bridle (S)
Heather Monro (M/C/R)
Alison O'Neil (C)
Sarah Rollins (S/M/R)
Helen Winskill (C/R)
Hannah Wootton (S/M)
Reserve:
Gillian Godfree

Congratulations and the best of luck to all those selected and commiserations to those who missed out this year.