OD’S WIN TOP PLACES AT UK’S LARGEST EVENT
Over 55 club members competed in the Easter weekend’s annual 4 day JK2015 in the Lake District, where over 3000 competitors from around Europe tested their skills starting with a sprint at Lancaster University campus on Good Friday, followed by two days on the mountains, fells and forests, finishing with relay competitions on Easter Monday.
Congratulations to our top club performers: Andy Simpson who not only won the sprint in 16.47mins on the 3.7km course on Day 1 but also came overall 1st after completing two extremely tough courses on Day 2 and Day 3 to win the JK title for his M40 class. Julie Emmerson claimed the W20 Elite title after coming 1st on Day 2 and 3rd on Day 3 with a combined time of 108.44mins, 4 minutes ahead of her nearest rival and she came 2nd in the Sprint race. Harrison McCartney also pulled off the M18 Elite title after coming 1st on Day 2 and 3rd on Day 3 to win in a total of 123.06mins ahead by only 36 seconds and he was placed 5th in the Sprint. Anne Straube was crowned W40 class winner after being placed 2nd on both Day 2 and Day 3 beating a Swedish competitor by 4 minutes.
Top ten positions were achieved by several club members at the Sprint on Day 1: Hilary Simpson was 2nd in the W75L class, Lesley Ross W45 and Matthew Elkington M20 Elite were 3rd, Sue Bicknell W70 5th, Pippa Smart W12 and Pete Carey M70 8th and Anne Straube W40 10th.
Matthew Elkington had a great weekend and came 3rd M20 Elite overall after winning the Day 2 event and coming 9th on Day 3. Hilary Simpson was also placed 3rd after the two days in the W75 class. Sheila Carey was overall 4th in the W65 Long class; Lesley Ross 5th in the W45 Long class, Trevor Simpson was 5th overall in the M75 Long class and Alistair Powell 6th in the M35 Long class. Competing in the Short classes their overall results for the two Days were: Stephen Elkington M18 2nd, Bruce Bryant M55 2nd, Tabitha Lunn W12B 5th, Liz Cross W45 5th and Daniel Roth M40 7th.
Club members Matthew Elkington and Will Gardner joined Jonathan Crickmore to run the relay as a Sheffield University team and were pushed into second place narrowly missing the Trophy by 6 seconds. In the Women’s Trophy Julie Emmerson, Toni O’Donovan and Kirsten Strain were placed 4th, only 3 minutes behind the winners. In the Women’s Short event Sophie Kirk, Rachel Emmerson and Anne Straube took 8th place. Mike Hampton, Pete Carey and Sheila Carey came in 4th in the Ultra Vets event and Keith Willdig, Margaret Willdig and Trevor Simpson were 8th. The Junior Relay team of Oliver Lunn, Peter Markham and Felix Lunn were 5th. In the Mini Relays Florence Lunn, Tabitha Lunn and Pippa Smart came 9th and Keith Ross, Guy Ross and Stephen Elkington were 9th in the Mixed Ad Hoc race.
The summer series of Wednesday evening local events around Coventry and Warwickshire Country Parks and woods starts on Wednesday evening 22 April at the Memorial Park, Coventry.
8th April 2015