Yesterday's
relay was a great end to a frustrating weekend with good courses on a really
good map. SYO (Jo Stevenson, Jenny and Helen Winskill) fought off CLOK to take
the victory in the womens trophy, while ShUOC (Chris Sellens, Neil Northrop,
Matt Crane and myself) pushed hard to catch EUOC but had to settle for 2nd place.
Congratulations to the young Edinburgh team for running a strong race, but watch
out next weekend at BUSA...great to see 2 uni teams at the top though. 
As
for the individual competition...Jenny made some mistakes on Saturday to finish
3rd behind Heather Monro and Helen Winskill. On Sunday Sarah Rollins managed
to sneak in front after a scrappy start to the race by Jenny. It was a solid
start to the season and confirmation that the winter's training is starting
to pay off. Heather took the JK title with 2 good runs but she was pushed close
this time by Helen who is in top form this year.The men's individual race was marred by bad controlling and dubious sportsmanship. I pushed very hard in Saturday's middle distance to finish 1st with a small lead over Jamie Stevenson and Jon Duncan. It was a tough race with a big elite feel to it - the organisers had pulled out all the stops to provide a warm-up map, flower ceremony, spectator control and great commentary. I was blissfully unaware that anything was amiss until 8pm when I read on the internet that 'course 1 and 2 are void'. No further explanation provided.
I
do not intend to pass judgement on anyone's reasons for putting in a protest.
Our sport is too small for personal motives to become involved in such matters
so I can only assume that the decision was made for the best possible reasons.
The map was not perfect and the control was badly hung. In spite of this, very
few people were affected by very little time. Worst hit was probably Jamie,
who was nonetheless particularly gracious about the course. Most disappointing
for me was that the protest was made without the courtesy of informing the athletes.
We are all friends and would have appreciated a gesture of openess. As it happened,
the voiding came as a nasty suprise that made it difficult to prepare for the
next day. Many thanks to the athletes for being so positive and supportive!
Sunday's
race was fast and furious and simple in a very open forest. I ran hard and scanned
the trees ahead of me for any sign of Jamie's back, but I was being optimistic!
A few unneccessary mistakes crept in and I finished in 6th, almost 5 minutes
behind Jamie. Jon Duncan and Matt Crane ran great races to finish in 2nd and
3rd not far behind JSFWC. Thanks to the organisers for putting on a great competition
over the weekend - there was a good atmosphere and plenty for specators to watch.
If British orienteering can overcome its regular technical issues then races
like the JK will be well and truly world class.Photos taken from the JK 2005 website.