ENGLAND REGAIN INTERLAND TROPHY
Three Octavian Droobers joined 41 junior and senior England team members in the annual Interland Trophy, a 5 way European competition, held this year in the Herbeumont Forest in the Ardennes, southern Belgium. England were pleased to regain the trophy, winning the overall match and the Junior Cup. Liz Phillips won an individual bronze medal coming 3rd on her W50 4.5km course with 250 metres of climb, taking 58.15mins to find controls sited on features including hard to locate charcoal burning platforms in the runnable woods. Also, enjoying the event in glorious sunshine was Nathan Lawson 4th in 74.04mins running on the M20 9.5km course with a massive 470 metres of climb and Anne Straube came 7th on the W40 6km course with 310 metres of climb taking 79.43mins.
Nearer to home there were several events around the midlands to attract club members. Shrewsbury Town Urban Race, part of the West Midlands Urban League was popular with club members. The parks, gardens, medieval town buildings, streets and the riverside provided a great setting in the sunshine and competitors had to make some interesting decisions on route choices to find controls. Chris McCartney M45 was the top runner on the 6.9km course taking 43.23mins. Sheila Carey W70 won the 3.9km course in 37.56mins just ahead of husband Peter Carey M70 38.01mins. Hilary May W65 was 7th on 2.6km course in 46.49mins.
Leicestershire Orienteering Club staged an event at Irchester Country Park in Northamptonshire and Will Gardner M21 had a fast run to take first place on the longest course, Brown 7.1km, finding 23 controls in only 42.49mins, brother Robert Gardner M21 was 4th in 59.15mins and father Richard Gardner M60 was 9th in 77.25mins. Richard Steel M50 was 4th on the 5.1km course in 56.25mins and Stan Alexander M65 8th in 58.54mins. On the Green 3.6km course Bruce Bryant M60 was 2nd in 34.56min. John Bowman was 7th on the Short Green 3km course in 49.45mins and Thelma Spalton W65 8th in 54.57mins. Junior Cameron Williams-Stein M14 was 1st on the 2.5km Light Green course with a great time of 23.41mins.
4th April 2017