Saturday May 11th saw Great Britain Orienteering Team members Oli Johnson (South Yorkshire) and Jenny Whitehead (EBOR) retain their titles in the annual York City Orienteering Trophy.
The junior classes saw a storming run from Alice Leake (EBOR W12) to win the Junior Women's Class for the first time in a time of 22 minutes. Her amazing time put her in 2nd place in the Junior Men's class and saw her win the Junior Women's by almost 3 minutes! Meanwhile Ben Stevens of AIRE had a strong run to take the Junior Men's title for the 2nd year running with brother George in 3rd. There was a strong showing from York in both junior classes, with Luke Pentith (EBOR) taking silver and Stuart Hooton (EBOR) 4th place, Matthew Edwards (Archbishop of Holgate School) in 5th, Tom Anderson 6th, 9 year old Joshua Cooper (EBOR) 7th and Russel Baldwin (also Archbishop Holgate) 9th in the Junior Men's and 7 of the top 10 Junior Women also from York (5 from EBOR).
The race attracted a high class field of over 130 runners with 6 Great Britain Team members and competitors from Ireland and the Czech Republic. Unfortunately the Men's course caught many out with over 15, including local star Matt Speake, mis-punching a control close to the end of the course (punching a very close control on the women's course instead by accident). Speake, in his final year as a junior, was leading by exactly a minute from Johnson when he made the error Incidentally the British Junior Team coach and the EBOR Club Chairman made the same mistake! The University of York had a good turn out with Sarah Easterby in 18th on the Women's Long and Steve Reid highest placed on the Men's Long course in 21st. John Bracegirdle and Samantha Williams were both 10th on the Short Courses.
The race started from Esplanade car park with the first 6 controls on that side of the river and orienteers racing down Micklegate before crossing the Ouse to controls near Stonebow and York Market. The orienteers then had to find several controls in the Museum Gardens before finishing through the old Queen Anne School grounds with a 1km run in to finish (Speake had the fastest time of 2.59 for this!).
Whitehead won the Women's race by a clear 1 minute 30 margin from British Team-Mates Helen Winskill (South Yorkshire) and Hannah Wootton (Newcastle University). "It's great to race through my home town and was nice to visit my old school [Queen Annes] on part of the course. I'm already looking forward to returning to the race again next year and hoping more beginners will come a long and give it a try".
Ed Nash (Newcastle University) took the Silver medal spot behind Johnson with Phil Winskill (South Yorkshire) 3rd. Both Johnson and Nash had difficulties out on the course taking some controls out of order before realising and having to retrace their footsteps. Top Eborienteer was Andy Monro (brother of British womens No.1 Heather Monro) in 5th place, and top junior was Chris Mitchell of Pendle Forest Orienteers.
Barrie Speake and Frances Prendegast, both EBOR, were top veteran in the Men's and Women's race respectively.
Anyone interested in sponsoring next year's event should contact Planner Steve Whitehead on 634138.