Nopesport

1500 people descended on to Culbin Forest last weekend for the British Orienteering Championships 2008. This stunning stretch of forested sand-dunes situated on the Moray coastline was used for a day of the Scottish 6 Day in 2007 but the map was extended east bringing the weekend's competitors to new unchartered areas.

With a great location and some of the best weather we've seen so far this year the scene was set for a great weekend of Orienteering. The planners dually providded us with some excellent technical testing courses which Oli Johnson and Rachel Elder excelled on taking the Mens & Womens 21 Elite titles. Jon Duncan lead the way for some time until a superb run from Oli eclipsed Jon's time by 4mins. Matt Crane couldn't quite match Oli's pace and had to settle for 2nd. Scott Fraser, tipped by the local paper as joint favourite with Oli, completed the top 3.

British Army's Sarah Rollins followed up her good performances at the JK and BEOC finishing 2nd behind Rachel with Helen Palmer, returning from Norway to compete, taking 3rd spot. The top 3 were evenly staggered 3mins apart.

The glorious weather continued for the relays as the event was moved to the slightly more familiar venue of Culbin used for the 6 Day. The area was just as techinical as the previous day but slightly less runnable. However this did not seem to hinder Interloper's Murray Strain as he managed to hold off the newly crowned British Champion Oli Johnson to bring the Edinburgh-based club home to a somewhat unexpected but well-deserved 1st place. Another battles unsued for 3rd and 4th, again between an Edinburgh-based and Sheffield-based clubs. Again the Edinburgh-based club, this time of EUOC, won through, Scott Fraser anchoring and bringing them home ahead of SYO's 2nd team.

Sheffield reigned supreme at the top of the women's premier class with Sheffield University blitxing the rest of the field winning by over 11mins ahead of fellow local's SYO. With the team posting the fastest and two 2nd fastest legs of the day, it was a dominant performance. EUOC clinched a a second podium of the day taking 3rd spot again just 25 secs down on SYO.

With some of the best terrain in the UK, the best weather this year, some great courses and organisation and exciting racing the British Championships really hass been the highlight of the 2008 calendar so far backed up by the feedback weekend Co-ordinator Jon Musgrave has received, reporting that "comments I received from competitors over the last two days were almost without exception full of praise for the forest, courses and organisation (and weather!!)."

Individual Results

Relay Results

Routegadget

British Orienteering Championships 2008 Website