Nopesport

The Brecon Beacons will host the SHIs

At the end of September the Ward Junior Home Internationals were held in Northern Ireland. The individual event on the mist covered slopes of the Mourne Mountains, saw all nations take individual wins:
W14 Jenny Evans, England
M14 Jack Barrett, Scotland
W16 Jessica Orr, Scotland
M16 Kris Jones, Wales
W18 Anne Edwards, England
M18 Ruairi Short, Ireland

England dominated the relay day to confirm victory over Scotland, while a strong relay day from the Welsh team saw them triumph over Ireland for 3rd place and the Judith Wingham trophy.

Now it's the turn of the Senior teams to battle for Home nation glory, this time on some fast open moorland in South Wales full of deep sinkholes and rock features. Scotland have dominated this competition for the last couple of years and their new team manager Andy Kitchin is feeling confident amid rumours of a few injuries in the squad. The latest England line up, as more succumb to winter colds, looks fairly strong:

W20 Anne Edwards, Jess Halliday, Tessa Hill
W21 Lizzie Adams, Becky Carlyle, Laura Daniel, Karen Heppenstall, Jenny Johnson, Pippa Whitehouse
M20 Iain Embrey, Joe Mercer, John Rocke
M21 Duncan Archer, Rob Baker, Nick Barrable, Oli Johnson, Neil Northrop, Mike Sprot.

Although Wales are missing some of their top runners, as all teams are, Ireland are sure to feel the Dragon's breath on their home terrain like last time the SHIs were held in Wales and the Welsh took a surprise victory in the Women's relay. Ireland's charge will be led by ShUOC's Marcus Pinker who always seems to feel at home and pull out good performances on limestone moorland areas.

As the season draws to a close it's the last chance for Britain's elites to grab some international glory, competition starts Saturday on Mynydd Llangynidr which organisers describe as "a joy to run across and orienteer in."

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