Nopesport

Womens Premier Podium

The relay day at the British Championships started with rain, and finished with some great head-to-head racing. The wind had risen overnight and there was a lot of people struggling with club tents, but that wasn’t to put a damper on events for the rest of the day.

On the 2 premier classes it was a bit of a Sheffield domination, with 5 of the 6 podium places being filled by the Yorkshire club!

Only 24 teams lined up for the Men’s Premier and it was always likely to be a tussle between South Yorkshire and Sheffield University after the Edinburgh Uni team withdrew from the weekend following injury.

SYO got off to a good start with Mike Sprot holding onto Duncan Archer to come in 2nd place, with another Yorkshire club (AIRE) in 3rd 20 seconds further back, with SHUOC coming in another minute behind. A storming 2nd leg from Irish international Marcus Pinker for SHUOC pulled them up to 2nd place, with Nick Barrable moving into the lead but giving Neil Northrop only a 20 second headstart over individual champion Oli Johnson. These 2 teams had a 5 minute margin over 3rd placed AIRE, with Joe Mercer heading out just over 2 minutes ahead of Rob Baker. It was a tense wait on the final leg, and it was an even tenser wait after the spectator control as Oli Johnson and Neil Northrop came through neck and neck. But it was the student who prevailed after a small miss by Neil, and SHUOC won by half a minute. It was then a bit of a wait for the 3rd place team to come through and it was the Leeds club who came through the spectator control first, but with only a 40 second gap to SYO’s 2nd team. In the end a small miss from Joe allowed Rob to overtake and it was just a little too much for the junior to overhaul, and eventually the Sheffield club finished just 5 seconds ahead of the Leeds club.
In the Women’s Premier SYO looked strongest on paper but there were a number of other teams in the mix.

On the 1st leg Becky Carlyle (EUOC) came through the spectator control a minute clear of Laura Daniel (SYO), and despite strong running by her pursuer, the Edinburgh student just came back in the lead, with CLOK’s Aislinn Austin a minute further back in 3rd just in front of British Army. A storming 2nd leg from Octavian Droobers Estonian international Liis Johanson pulled the Midlands club up from 8th into the lead, a minute ahead of Kim Buckley and Jenny Peel (both SYO) just ahead of Lizzie Britton of Sheffield University. A strong leg from SYO’s British champion Jenny Johnson ensured the Sheffield club of victory, although fastest leg of the day went to Lizzie Adams of SHUOC who pulled the university club up from 4th to 2nd after winning a close sprint finish with Toni O’Donovan (wearing rather unique o-kit) of OD.

Winners of the other classes were:
Men’s Short Swansea Bay OC
Women’s Short Interlopers
M40 West Cumberland OC
W40 Bristol OK
M50 Guildford Orienteers
W50 South London
M/W60 Lakeland OC
M18 Deeside
W18 Nottingham OC
M14 Deeside
W14 South Ribble OC
M/W12- Octavian Droobers
Mixed Ad Hoc Nottingham OC
Junior Ad Hoc South Ribble OC

Full Results

All Sheffield Mens Premier Podium