- Photo: Wendy Carlyle
Last Saturday 1,000 orienteers descended on campus to take part in the British Sprint Orienteering Championships. This is the first time the prestigious event has been held at the university in its relatively recent 10-year history.
Orienteering is a challenging outdoor adventure sport that exercises both the mind and the body. The aim is to navigate in sequence between control points marked on a unique orienteering map and decide the best route to complete the course in the quickest time.
The University of York campus was perfect terrain for the event, with a mix of landscaped grounds and a complex arrangement of buildings. It provided plenty of route choice and navigational challenge but allowed for some high-speed racing.
The event drew a wide range of participants from across the country all competing to become British Sprint Champion in their respected age group. However, the focus was on the Men’s and Women’s elite classes as neither of the defending champions were present, so it was all to play for.
The best six runners from each of the three heats qualified for the final. In the women’s final, Catherine Taylor of Edinburgh University won by a mere 2 seconds relegating Helen Bridle and Clare Ward, both of Edinburgh Southern and experienced orienteers, to 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
Out of a tough field, Chris Smithard from Sheffield University (pictured) had an impressive run and won the final to become the new men’s champion, his first national title. The standard of the competition in the men’s final was so high that virtually all of the runners finished within 100 seconds of each other.
Sprint orienteering is a relatively new form of orienteering where the courses are short (2km) and the winning times are around 12 minutes. With such short and fast courses seconds count. Chris denied Oli Johnson, a four times British Champion from South Yorkshire Orienteers, his first elusive sprint title by only 6 seconds.
After the run, Oli said: “My race was good, but not quite good enough. It was hard to stay on top of the navigation while running at speed and I had to hesitate a few times to make sure that I got it right, all it takes for the margin between gold and silver!”
Aside from the elites, the event was the championships for all other orienteers. There was a wide range of champions, from Rachel Duckworth, Derwent Valley winning the women’s 10-year-old class (W10) to Richard Arman of Wessex winning M80.
The event was organised by Eborienteers, the local orienteering club for York and it went smoothly on such a lovely day. The following day, the competitions moved to Strensall Common, an area of heathland used by the army as a training area, for the British Middle Distance Championships. Full results from the weekend can be found on the event website: www.york2012orienteering.org.uk.
The University of York Orienteering Club (UYOC) is a newly formed club and have had a successful year with podium finishes at BUCS. For more information on UYOC see www.uyoc.org.uk. Orienteering is a great sport for runners, joggers and walkers who want to improve their navigation skills or for anyone who loves the outdoors.
Contributors: Adam Bradbury and Oli Johnson.