I hope all LVO members had a great Easter weekend, there was certainly lots of fun had by those who headed to the Lakes for this years JK.
A very heathy number of us (34 in total) headed off to join 2500 other orienteers from around Britain, Ireland, Europe and even further afield to run about in seemingly random directions.
Well done to all who took part and big congratulations to some of our talented juniors who brought home medals! In the relay our Mini team made up of Aran Power🥉, Cillian Lynch🥉and Ewan Ewart🥉got a bronze and Ewan’s big brother, James 🥈 got Silver as part of an Irish Junior Team – amazing stuff!
Day 1 – Sprint, Lancaster University
After the trip over on the ferry we all managed to navigate our way down through holiday traffic to Lancaster University. Here we enjoyed the sunny warm weather and fast running around the campus – a Good Friday it was.
Although the courses were not too technically difficult, lots of differently shaped buildings and underpasses kept things interesting and there were plenty of route choices to gain or lose time.
Runs of particular note were from: Aran Power M10 6th. Daniel Earnshaw M20E 17th. Daniel Vasey MOpen 13th. Wilbert Hollinger M75 5th and Moire O’Sullivan W45 6th.
After our runs, many of us hung around to catch up and enjoy the British Orienteering Award presentations, where Ric (with his BOF hat on) announced Susan Lambe to be the winner of the inaugural Respect the Environment Award. Unfortunately Susan wasn’t able to be there to collect her award but poolside from her LA villa she said, “Well this is unexpectedly exciting!”. Susan wasn’t really in LA, more believable and apt she was actually in Co. Clare planting trees. Huge congratulations Susan! 👏
Day 2 – Middle Distance, High Dam
On Saturday we headed to the Finsthwaite valley, near Newby Bridge and Lake Windermere. We were not disappointed by the technicality of this area. The what3words for this location is, graceful.shift.purified – I can’t say the shift I put in was graceful but the words muttered from many a confused persons mouth could have done with some purification. After a climb from the start we orienteered round a complex area of undulating, feature rich open, semi-open and wooded ground before a steep and fast drop (some were known to slide and run down cliffs) into the finish where all the Irish teams occupied a prime site for cheering us in.
Special mention to Sam Graham M16 who completed a very challenging course, a massive step up from anything he has done before. The skill and determination that he and our other juniors display in competing in these major event course is amazing to see. Others who did very well included, Paul Pruzina M21E 16th out of a huge field of 154 elite men and Helen Baxter who entered a W21 race (yes you read that correctly). Helen, thanks to an administrative error (Olivia got the blame) took on a field of 21 year olds and beat a fair number of them.
Day 3 – Loooong Distance, Bigland (the clue’s in the name Bigland!)
The event venue on Easter Sunday was at Bigland situated near Haverthwaite, SW of Newby Bridge. Fuelled up with chocolate eggs we started our courses in open ground, breaking us in to what became increasingly physical and technical terrain on steep rocky woodland. There was one 50x50m square section of steep forest with about 10 controls in it from different courses – I am sure I visited them all at least twice without finding my own. I wasn’t alone, orienteers were seen rushing around like demented ants.
Some notable performances came from Aran Power M10 6th, James Ewart M14 9th, Paul Pruzina 25th (out of 125 elites) and Wilbert Hollinger M75 8th.
Fortunately we all got back and some even had a sprint finish left in their legs.
Day 4 – Relay, Dale Park
The word Park in the venue name sounded quite inviting in comparison to the previous two days. That was short lived when we arrived at the start and were greeted to a 150m steep climb just to get to the start kite! Fortunately spectators were stretched out over the length of this climb to support us. It was a joyous experience keeping pushing up that hill with hundreds of mouths cheering on and eyes watching us. After the climb the race was in generally open deciduous forest, with areas of intricate contours and plenty of rock features – hardly a walk in the park!
LVO had a great turn out, entering eight relay teams and some other members joining other teams – Paul and Sophie Pruzina were part of a couple of Drongo (Cambridge Uni alumni) teams and James Ewart in the very successful Irish Junior Squad.
Well done everyone who came over, great effort and great fun!
Next up we have 4 days of Irish Championship (IOC) competition in Wicklow at the end of this month. Good luck to all competing, let’s bring some more medals back home! This is quickly followed by the British Sprint, Middle and TrailO Champs the following weekend. Thank you to everyone involved in putting this major competition together! Although entries are closed for these events, there are other Emerald Isle events happening midweek, including the first UK Urban League race to be staged in NI at Carrick. Entries for this will close very soon, so don’t miss out, book on now!
Multi-day events like the JK and IOC are not only a great way to improve our skills but a fun way to build club community. You can lower the cost by sharing self-catering accommodation and transport or stay in a camp/holiday site where you will be round and get to know other club members and orienteers from across Ireland and the UK. So, if you haven’t been to a multi-day event before, definitely think about doing so in the near future!
One Reply to “JK 2023 Report”