Nopesport

Guildford Orienteers yesterday hosted the OO Trophy Regional Event at Waggoners Wells in Hampshire. Over 650 competitors took part and were blessed by blue skies and sunshine as they took on terrain comprising heathland and a mixture of deciduous and coniferous forest. Route choice was the main challenge of the day, with plenty of paths and tracks available, while straight line routes often meant climb through the valleys in the woodland or pushing hard through the heather and bracken on the heath.

In the Men's 21 Long class it was Alan Velecky from Southdowns who convincingly won the 11km course in a time of 70:03, five minutes clear of a host of runners including David Currie of Southampton who was only one second clear of Matthias Mahr of South London who was 3rd. In the corresponding Women's class it was South London's Abi Weeds who took victory on the 7.6km course in a time just under 59 minutes, two minutes clear of Kim Buckley of South Yorkshire. Liz Day took third spot a further two minutes down while Sarah Rollins completed the course in just over 75 minutes.

In the junior classes there was good victories from Sanna Eriksson of SLOW in the JW5L course, four minutes clear of Jo Halliday of OD while Lucy Thraves of Southdowns also took a convincing victory by 7 minutes in JW4. Things were closer in the Junior Men's courses, Matthew Whipple of SOC finishing 25 seconds clear of David Abrams of GO in JM5L. Closest of the days courses was in JM1 where Daniel Couldery of GO took victory by just six seconds, winning the 1.4km course in 13:05, just ahead of Liam Marsh of Southdowns.

Nigel Bunn of TVOC won the 8.6km M40L course in a time of 61:30, a minute clear of M35L winner Richard Barrett on the same course. On the 7.6km course 3 it was Roger Thetford of TVOC who took victory in M45L in a time of 51:47, 20 seconds clear of Colin Dickson of BAOC in M50L who was in turn 35 seconds clear of teammate Axel Blomquist.

The M70L course saw an impressive 19 entrants, with Derek Wise of Southern Navigators just over the 10mins/km mark with a time of 45:11 for the 4.3km course, only a minute clear of a number of other runners with the top 11 being covered by just 9½ minutes. W70L had 7 competitors with Mary Fogo finishing over 10 minutes clear on the 3.6km course.

Full results are available here (Splitsbrowser available here) with the winners of the OO Trophy to follow soon. This Trophy, awarded every year, is named after "Occasional Orienteers", a club that merged with Guildford Orienteers a couple of decades ago. There are four categories, and certificates are awarded to the first 3 in each, with the winner being awarded the OO Trophy.