Nopesport

Triple O Severn

The latest round of the UK Cup and UK Relay League was held around the Wiltshire/Somerset border over the bank holiday weekend. Overall turnout was a bit disappointing, with many top Elites running in the Tio-Mila in Sweden, and a large number of competitors choosing only to run the Sunday National Event, but BOK and SARUM put on an enjoyable 3-day event.

Day 1 - Fonthill Saturday's race on Fonthill was the 2006 British Middle Distance championships. The courses provided fairly fast racing across a forest that was generally quite runnable, although the many brashings and brambles in places provided a good physical challenge. The Men's open course provided a good exercise in control flow with only one leg longer than 500m. At the half-way point there was a spectator control as runners crossed through a narrow tunnel which divided the two halves of the area, which provided some spectator interest. The Open Elite courses were won by Neil Northrop, SHUOC (5.9km in 33:28) and Abi Weeds, SLOW (4.7km in 36:54).

Day 2 - Stourhead Sunday's race, a National Event as well as UK Cup race, was held in the tough forests of Stourhead estate. The area was certainly physically demanding, with plenty of brashings, brambles and hills. Due to certain technical problems, many of the courses had to be replanned the week prior to the event. Considering this, despite a few teething problems regarding control descriptions, the organisers and planner did a good job in ensuring the event ran as well as it did - courses were generally well-received there were plenty of interesting route-choice legs on most courses. Neil Northrop again won the Men's Elite UK Cup class, completing the 12.9km course in 84:12. Christine Currie of SOC won the women's 8.5km Elite race in 75:50.

Day 3 - Gaer Hill Monday's race saw a Harris Relay format race, which formed part of this year's UK Relay League - perhaps a questionable decision given the format and timing of the race, and turnout was rather disappointing with only 200 or so competitors choosing to stay on for the event (there had been around 900 the day before). However, those that did turn up experienced an enjoyable novelty event which relied heavily on strategy and planning at the start of the race. In the Open classes, the first 3 team members initially ran the traditional "Harris Relay" format - ie all members visiting 8 compulsory 'Spine' controls, with the remaining 'Team' controls visited by one runner on each time. When all 3 Harris Relay runners had finished, each team's 4th member set off on a standard orienteering course. Unfortunately many teams were disqualified, generally either through one member missing out one the compulsory controls, or no-one in a team collecting on of the Team controls. A few teams finished the Harris Relay section and realised one control had been missed out, resulting in some rather long detours! The first two finishers on the Men's Open class, SYO and SHUOC, were both disqualified. This meant that BOK took 1st place, with a team of Gavin Clegg, Andy Craber, Mark Saunders and Clive Hallet, who just outsprinted SYO at the finish. The Women's Open race was won by South London's team of Nicky King, Sarah Covey-Crump, Diane Leaky and Kathy Haynes.

Full results can be found on the event website

Paulo