PETER PALMER AND LONDON CITY WEEKEND RESULTS
Peter Palmer Relays
The annual Peter Palmer junior national relay championship took place this year at Lancing Ring and was organised by Southdowns Orienteering Club. A feature of this event is that it starts at 5am and the first two or three competitors are running in the dark and semi dark with head torches. The team of Harrison McCartney, Nathan Lawson, Sam Leadley, Pippa Smart, Florence, Tabitha and Felix Lunn had great runs to earn a creditable 4th place considering many had never competed in this event before.
London City Weekend
London City Race Weekend is becoming a popular annual fixture. Over a 1000 entrants were able to experience the triple event orienteering programme of a night sprint, urban city and ultra park sprint races.
The night sprint took place around Imperial College and Octavian Droobers club members achieved top ten places on their courses: 6th places went to Liz Phillips W50 6th on 2km Course 4 taking 27.27mins to find the 18 controls, Bruce Bryant M55 21.16mins on 2.2km Course 3 and Karin Kirk W65 44.24mins on 1.8km Course 5. Sophie Kirk W21 was 7th on 2.6km Course 2 in 23.31mins.
The London City Race, part of the City Race Euro series, was planned around Wapping and the Tower of London and attracted many European club runners. In 5th place were two club members: Pippa Smart W12 participating for the first time in this event and she took 10.56mins, only 46 seconds behind the winner on the Children’s 1.2km course, and Will Gardner M21 on the Mens Elite 9.3km course with 28 controls who took 54.29mins. Liz Phillips W50 was 6th on her 4.2km course in 43.10mins and Sophie Kirk W21 8th on the Women’s Elite 7.7km course in 1.02.22mins.
The Ultra Sprint was staged in Waterlow Park, Highgate and competitors had to run three heats on courses of approximately 1km with a high density of controls including sections in a specially constructed maze. After the 3 heats Sophie Kirk was in 2nd place and qualified for the Women’s Open final with 3 other competitors. In the exciting fast and furious final she came in first 4 seconds ahead of South London’s Helen Gardner. Liz Phillips was 6th in the heats, Karin Kirk 7th and Bruce Bryant 8th in their respective classes.
15th Sept 2015.