Nopesport

At long last SROC’s National event at Whitbarrow took place after a few year’s in the making. Thankfully the weather which made it impossible to hold the event last year held off and all competitors were able to enjoy the area at it’s best.

The planning had courses going in different directions around the area which meant you had to wait a couple of times at wall crossings, but this did at least prevent tracks appearing in the terrain as few courses went the same way.

The terrain was very demanding underfoot without ever being rough – the limestone pavement just proved to be very taxing on the ankles (and other limbs when the ankles gave up) and hopefully the people who needed 1st aid treatment make a speedy recovery. Even so, the winning times were much quicker than the recommended which is a bit of a let down for what was a National and World Ranking event (the M21L was won in 56, 19mins quicker than the expected winning time; the W21L was won in 47 as opposed to the 60 minute expected time).

Even so, the courses were planned well enough that the restriction of crossing points in the many walls didn’t detract too much from the quality of courses. I must say that I prefer having controls at crossing points to ensure that no-one is tempted to cross the walls elsewhere which can jeopardise the use of areas in the future, even if it does make a few legs a bit simpler.

This event was the first in this year’s UK Cup and it was going to be interesting to see who was showing some good early season form.

In the men’s competition, it was SYO’s Oli Johnson fresh from some impressive results out in Portugal a couple of weeks previously who notched up the fastest time of the day. Graham Gristwood (EWOK) showed that he’s had a decent winter’s training and came in 1:25 behind, with INT’s Scott Fraser posting a good time from an early start just beating Marcus Pinker (back at university in Sheffield!) by 9 seconds. Last year’s UK Cup winner Neil Northrop appeared to have a few navigational errors and ended up 13 minutes down in 18th place.

In the women it was last year’s UK Cup winner Pippa Whitehouse (CLOK) who prevailed, beating Sheffield University’s Rachael Elder by just 16 seconds. These two were 2 minutes clear of the Dahlstedt sisters, Elin beating Emma by just under a minute. It was a welcome return to the domestic season for Helen Winskill, finishing in 5th place, and 3rd Brit.

For the older juniors this race acted as a selection race and Future Champions Cup qualifier, and there were victories for Kristian Jones (SBOC) – M16A, Hector Haines (AIRE) – M18A, John Rocke (LEI) – M20L, Mairead Rocke (LEI) – W16A, Hazel Wright (MAROC) – W18A, and Sanna Eriksson (SLOW) – W20L.

For full results, Winsplits, Splitsbrowser and RouteGadget click here