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Volume 23 No 4 September 2002

Previous Issues: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, Volume 23 No 1 February 2002, Volume 23 No 2 April 2002

Burbage Moor Plantations to be felled
Helen Hargreaves profile
Coaching plans
Blackamoor SMILE event
Oli Johnson wins bronze
Chris Browell at World MTBO champs
APOC 2002
Harvester Relays
Success for Zoe Fiander
Taking the pee
Traffic light orienteering
Twenty years ago
Scottish 6-Day event - Moray 2003 - Accommodation
Armchair Training
Fixtures

Burbage Moor Plantations to be felled - BUT NOT YET

This seems to be the most likely outcome of the management plan that is being drawn up for the woodlands on Burbage Moor.

Burbage Moor plantations consist of three adjoining blocks of conifer plantations which were established between 1968 and 1970. They are the bits of woodland that are to be found in the middle of the Burbage map on either side of Burbage brook. In total they cover 34.3 hectares. The woodland is owned by Sheffield City Council. The surrounding area is also council-owned but tenanted.

Basically the plantations have been managed by neglect and the Council has shown litle interest in them.

Until now that is!!

The critical problem is that the trees, mainly Lodge Pole Pine and Larch have grown to such an extent that they are starting to succumb to wind damage. The soil is so thin that the roots have little to support them should they be affected by wind. Within the next ten years they will provide a serious safety risk. Thinning the plantations will only make the matter worse as there would be fewer trees to support each other. In addition to this problem they are infested by grey squirrels who have bark-stripped 10% of the trees.

The trees are not very good timber but will provide 5000 tons of wood which will yield approximately £60,000.

Managing the plantation is made difficult by the lack of vehicular access to the plantations.

So, the critical decisions seem to be how does the council cut them down?

Because there is no vehicular access the problems will be significant.

One option is to upgrade the southern part of the green road and then lay a carpet of brashings for the vehicles and also use aerial ropeways to extract the timber.

Another option is to turn the timber into chippings.

There does seem to be a consensus that there should be a wooded valley to replace the pine plantation. Perhaps a mixture of indigenous broadleaf and pine and naturally regenerating vegetation.

Helen Hargreaves - the secret of her success!

After returning from her successful World Cup I managed to catch up with Helen to try to find how you become a really good orienteer.

When did you first start orienteering?

At the age of about nine, so for nearly 20 years now! I didn't really enjoy it at first but I went on a South West Junior Squad weekend and realised I was quite good. I then began to enjoy it a lot more!

Does it help being in a junior squad then?

Definitely! Not only do you get to spend time with your friends, you get to make new ones too! I also believe that they best way to become a great orienteer is to learn the basics as soon as possible and the junior squad is ideal for this. By doing exercises that make you concentrate on your compass work or fine map reading means that you can practise the correct way of doing things, after all practice makes perfect! As a junior, it is easier to do really well by having races with no mistakes.

What about the running?

For me this is my weakest area. I have worked hard to make the technical side of my orienteering my strongest point however orienteering is all about getting to the finish faster than anyone else. As you get older, it becomes more and more important to run as fast as you can without making mistakes. Over the past 4 years I have made a consious effort to train hard and build up slowly so I can compete against the best orienteers in the world.

So what training do you do typically?

It varies from summer to winter.

Over the winter months (from Oct through to about March) it involves lots of running and cycling, building up my stamina so that I am able to race hard the following summer. My runs are usually longer (1.5 to 2 hours) and in terrain if possible. I still do some speed work but the intervals are longer than in summer. I also do two sessions on some days by going to the gym at lunchtime and building my upper body strength. Last winter I averaged about 4.5 hours running a week and 2.5 hours cross training (cycling/gym). This year I hope to increas it, although I need to be careful not to do too much too quickly as this leads to injuries. During the summer (April to Sept) it's racing season! I do lots of faster running by doing fell races and shorter intervals. I still try and run in terrain and keep at least one run a week over about 1.5 hours. Also the evenings are light enough to go orienteering training after work although I'm really bad at making myself practise the different techniques. My typical training hours go a bit to pot as I need plenty of rest before racing to ensure that I feel my best however I usually do similar hours of running as winter but less cycling/gym.

Lots of orienteers don't really like training. What can you suggest to make it easier?

Training is hard and it does hurt! However, to make it easier I find that running with other people really helps. If you've arranged to meet someone to go for a run then it's a lot easier to leave the house. I also joined Hallamshire Harriers last year and that was a real boost to my training, it's sometimes nice to be told what to do rather than decide for yourself! Also, it's better to do a run with fast and slow sections rather than just a plod as you push your body a little bit beyond what it's used to and then recover. You'll get fitter and faster, quicker! Make every run a quality session rather than junk mileage/hours.

So what's on the orienteering agenda for you this/next year?

Well, I've already competed for Great Britain twice this year and have been pleased with my level of performance compared to previous years. However, I know I can do even better so am continuing to push myself forward. I hope to make the GB team for the final set of races later this year (Sept/Oct) and get in the top 20.

Next year it's the World Championships in Switzerland so I'll be training hard over the winter to ensure I'm in the best physical shape for next season.

Best of luck Helen.

Coaching - we need to develop more stars!

I am in the early stages of planning some coaching mainly for SYO Juniors but I think it could be widened to include adult novices.

I am also looking for experienced orienteers to get involved and help out.

The coaching would take place on a number of Saturday mornings and would be for juniors who are at orange standard or higher and for seniors who want to learn more. The purpose for the juniors is to enable them to represent SYO in the CompassSport Cup on March 16th 2003 and in the British Relay Champs (which will be held in Greno Woods) on May 18th 2003.

A typical morning session would involve two or three exercises set by the lead coach for the morning focussing on a particular skill. The juniors would be working in groups of two or three, each group working with a coach/shadower whose role would be to talk with them about what they had done.

A suggested scheme might look like this:

November 23rd Compass work and pacing
November 30th Attack points
Feb 1st 2003 Contours
March 15th Relocation
March 29th/30th Traffic light orienteering in the Lake District
April 12th Entry and Exit at controls

Selection for the SYO Junior teams would be based on performances in identified Badge events.

Dec 1st SYO Badge event at Strines
Feb 2nd NOC Badge event at Mansfield
March 16th CompassSport Cup 1st round
March 30th SROC Badge event at Newby Bridge
April 13th DVO Badge event at Chatsworth

Those Juniors who represent SYO will be able to purchase an SYO 'O' top for £5 and will have their entry fees paid for them.

To make this work would require:

Juniors!

The club has a number of families with juniors who would benefit and we also have three schools who regularly bring juniors to events.

Lead coaches

Somebody who would plan the exercises for the morning, put out controls and give instructions about what to do.

Coaches

To work with groups of 2/3 juniors for the morning. Adults who don't need a coaching qualification, just a willingness to share their enthusiasm for orienteering with juniors.

If you feel you could contribute to this venture please contact Colin Best at colinallanb@yahoo.co.uk.

Please also contact Colin if you are a junior or more senior and wish to get the benefit of some coaching.

There will be a small cost for this coaching to cover expenses (eg cost of maps, travel expenses of coaches, photocopying etc).

Blackamoor SMILE event

I don't know whether it was Blackamoor itself, the reputation of Peter and Jill Gorvett's planning or what, but forty people turned out to this little event. Some people came who hadn't orienteered for some time and it was good to see them again - Martin McShane, Arun Sahni, Martin and Jed Desforges, Nick Lowe, Paul Beresford, Gordon Riley. Peter's and Jill's courses found favour with most of the old hands who appreciated being kept out of the man eating bracken.

Oli Johnson wins bronze

Oli Johnson, from Sheffield University, currently the British Students Champion stormed home in BRONZE medal position in the classic distance race today (21st August) at the World Student Orienteering Championships in Varna, Bulgaria. This is excellent news for Oli, who is currently ranked 74th in 2002 World Cup Orienteering series, as this will give him the confidence he needs to improve his position at the World Cup Final in Hungary and Czech Republic in September 25-October 5th.

Oli went on to gain another podium place in the short distance final following his Bronze two days previously. He came sixth in the short race final. Oli had a good run in a tricky forest with small features, Many of the tracks were overgrown and easy to cross without seeing them. Oli made only small 'high speed' mistakes, someitmes drifting off the straight line but quickly realising and hitting the controls cleanly. However, Thierry Gieorgiou from France, the University World Champion two years ago on his home ground, was very strong and was the clear winner by over a minute.

Mountain Bike 'O' success for SYO's Chris Browell

The 17 year old is placed 6th in juniors competition

Chris Browell has returned from three days of mountain bike racing in the World Championships in France. He was 6th Junior in the 2002 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships held for the first time in Fontainebleau Forest, south of Paris.

Chris' 6th position was the best result for the British Team, and the only one to get a podium place.

The fifteen strong British team, led by Trail Cyclist Association Chairman John Houlihan, travelled out for a couple of days training in the forest before three days of competition races. Chris, who has just turned 17, was the youngest selected for the British Team, and only just eligible for the Junior class, which spans the huge ability gap from 17 to 21 year olds.

Up against 21 countries from all over the world, Chris' stamina carried him through 3 days of competition, and despite some minor errors in map-reading in complex forest, he managed top ten positions every day, culminating with 2nd place in the Final. This pulled him up to a very creditable 6th place overall.

Chris was the only Junior competing for the British Team. His toughest competition came from the Italian Junior Team. 'It was a bit daunting, lined up as a 17 year old Junior against 21 year olds. Some of them had beards!'

Mountain bike orienteering is gaining popularity in the UK, but is already a mainstream sport in other countries.

In the Seniors Championships, the next best result from the Brits was John Houlihan's 9th place in the Sprint, out of 110 competitors.

The forest tracks are mainly fast riding on hard-packed horse-rides, but soft sandy spots lurk around corners and at the toe of slopes to catch the unwary. Imagine whizzing down a hill and straight onto a sandy beach - 'it's very easy for the bike to stop dead and the rider to continue over the handle-bars' said Chris. The geometric spider junctions that are a feature of this Royal Hunting Forest are a navigational nightmare - eight tracks lead off, all looking the same.

The pre-marked maps were issued on the start line, and the race is then a time trial sprint around a set course, taking approximately 90 minutes. The map shows the rideability of trails, and off-track is out of bounds. Each competitor makes their own route choice, and a quick carry up a sandy hill can be a faster course than a flat fast detour.

17-year-old Chris is a sixth form student at Silverdale School. He said that the mountain bike competition was tough, but not as daunting as giving a talk about his achievements in school assembly!

Holiday orienteering - APOC 2002 by Alan Goddard

The Asia/Pacific Orienteering Championships are in my experience (I've now been to three of them) friendly and essentially low key but held in some of the best available orienteering terrain. This year was in general no exception.

The format was 2 days Canadian O Champs (COC), APOC Relay, APOC Individual, Canadian Short Course Champs and 2 days North American O Champs. The first three events were based near Calgary, the last three near Edmonton (about 300k north of Calgary) and the APOC Individual was held in some unique terrain midway between the two major cities. There were also two model events. About 800 competitors from 30-odd nations attended the event.

As usual at these far flung events there was a small SYO contingent in attendance - Martin and Judith Checkley, Martin and Lesley Ward, Dave Harrison and me. The weather was more Saharan than Canadian with temperatures most of the time at around 30 degrees C. On one day in Edmonton the mid-day temperature was 34 degrees C which made orienteering uncomfortable.

The COC were held in the foothills of the Rockies which made a scenically breathtaking backdrop. Day 1 in vague but thickish forest and day 2 in mixed white to mid green forest with some quite complex contours.

The relays were also held on the day 2 terrain. The two Martins, Judith and myself made up a relay team. The basic format, to allow the inclusion of as many teams as possible, was age and gender based (points allocated with typically 0pts for M21, 2pts for 40+ men, and 3 for 40+ women etc) with 0pt, 4pt, 8pt and 12pt teams. Within each of these levels there were three categories - all from one country, all from one club and mixed. Anyway to cut a long story short we finished 12th overall.

The APOC Individual was held in what was to my experience a totally unique terrain. Acres of pleasantly rounded hills apparently carved out of the middle of the prairie in the last ice age and covered in extensive patches of light green to green wood and copse. There were no line features on large tracts of the map. It was tricky but really enjoyable to orienteer on - if you put to one side the 30+ degree temperature - but very difficult to relocate whenever you lost contact. All in all a good test.

The COC short event and the NAOC 2 day event were held in extremely technical moraine type terrain with extensive thickly wooded (almost green) dry marshes (there was an official drought being experienced) and mixed runnable wood and open area on the higher ground. NAOC day 1 was very technical and at 34 degrees it was difficult to maintain concentration. Lots of people, me included, didn't finish. For day 2 the termperature dropped to the mid 20s and although the maps overlapped it was definitely more manageable. There seemed to be square miles of this type of terrain available in the area.

The event was timed to coincide with the world famous Calgary stampede, well I thought it was world famous, but some people don't appear to have heard of it. Anyway Lynn and I went along thinking that it would be a bit tacky. In fact it was incredibly impressive. The sheer bravery and skill of the bronco and bull riders was staggering. The otehr competitions - steer wrestling, barrel racing, calf roping, wild horse racing, chuck wagon racing were equally high on spectacle and the rodeo clowns were integral to the performance not just a disappointing add on. Finally all the up and coming cowboys and cowgirls get a go and I shall remember for some time the 6 year old 'mutton busters' riding out on their wild and woolly sheep. All in all a holiday highlight.

To round off the trip we took the 'Rocky Mountaineer' railway journey from Calgary to Vancouver. Truly spectacular and not to be missed if ever you're in that neck of the woods.

Harvester Relays

On the weekend of 31st August, the Harvester Trophy returned back 10 years later to Dipton Woods, near Hexham. The forest where SYO were cheated from victory by the misfortune of another team taking our 3rd leg map and our short leg runner running a long leg and vice-versa for the long leg runner.

SYO's problems started well before the race day, as many had declared themselves unavailable due to injuries, holidays etc. We even had 3 of the final team trying to pull out but they had no choice due to lack of reserves. So no Jamie, Charlie, Peely, Phil W, and any of the gals - have we had any women run for the SYO's first team? Bill Edwards won the award of longest journey coming from NZ for work. Mike Sprot was the only team member to have joined the club since the last Harvester @ Dipton!

The race started off at 2pm with 17 starters. Martin Ward had an excellent run on 1st leg to bring the team back in first place exactly what I predicted and hoped but never told Martin. He ran too well as he found himself in the lead on the way to 3 and then lost 4 mins. Then he was playing catch upwhich is not a bad position to be in as the next few controls were quite hard.

I ran the 2nd leg and struggled. I think I kept the lead until the 5th control but on the way to the 6th I ran straight over a path, which lost me 1-2 mins and then failed to find the control in an open area. Totalling 4 mins. By this time MDOC had sneaked past while SHUOC and GRAMMAR (Grampian and Maroc combined team) caught me at 6. The whipper snappers from SHUOC just ran away and I really struggled in the last quarter finisheing 6 mins behind MDOC and 4 behind SHUOC and just ahead of GRAMMAR.

Pete Gorvett ran the short night leg. He was passed by the slower starting favourites, Interlopers, and GRAMMAR. Pete ran well but slowly he says and this lost another 6 mins. Bill kept us in touch with GRAMMAR with an excellent run as I guess he's doing a lot less than ever. Young Mike wasn't able to run to his potential and we lost more time for 4th. Meanwhile SHUOC and Int were battling for the lead. Just like his golf at the moment, Dave Harrison performed better than expected to overtake MDOC.

Meanwhile FVO were closing in on us but Tim couldn't lose 12 mins? MDOC who may have been the perpetrators 10 years ago when we ended up with the wrong map, again picked up the wrong map taking Team 6 Leg 7 map and not Team 7 Leg 6 map. They were finally punished 10 years too late! Meanwhile FVO lost their dibber and Tim had a safe run to finish in an excellent 4th some 30 mins plus behind the winners Interlopers.

It is unfortunate to have injuries but it was disappointing to only have the one team. No women's or B team. Let's hope we can win all three trophies next year! I am expecting to strengthen the men's and women's teams next year and hopefully the morning barbecue feeding SHUOC with sausages and bacon will help us get more talent in the future.

Mark Chapman

Success for Zoe Fiander

SYO Junior and Sheffield High School student Zoe Fiander achieved high flying results in her GCSEs. Not only did she achieve A*s in all her examinations but in her English exam she came in the top 5 students out of all the 73000 students across the country who took the exam.

WELL DONE!

Taking the pee - from The Irish Orienteer, April 2002

Dehydration can make top athletes and performers lose their competitive edge, says a leading sports dietician. Her answer - a pee chart that enables people to tell from their urine whether they're drinking enough fluids.

Avoiding dehydration before an event can make the difference beween failure and success, says Anne Price, who works with Britain's Olympic gymnastic, badminton and equestrian teams. Athletes are more likely to strike gold if their first pee of the day is pale yellow, she says.

"It's difficult to quantify the impact", says Price, who is presenting her results this week in Harrogate at a meeting of the British Dietetic Association. "But at levels of 1% dehydration you could expect a 5% drop in performance".

Dehydration is defined as the percentage of normal body weight lost, as sweat for example, without being replaced. Even a small impairment in performance could be vital in events where microseconds count - such as sprinting - or where concentration and reaction time are crucial.

Working with other dieticians, Price developed a laminated credit-card sized 'pee-chart'. This allows athletes to compare the colour of their early morning pee with eight colours displayed on the chart. "They range from pale, creamy yellow to a dark, browny colour", says Price. "If you produce lots of pale urine that doesn's smell you're hydrated properly." Athletes are advised to drink more if their urine falls in the darker range.

Dehydration is measured by looking at concentrations of solutes, such as urea, in urine. This nromally requires complicated equipment. But Lawrence Armstrong of the University of Connecticut has shown there is a correlation between urine colour and solute concentrations, and Price based her chart on his work.

Lucozade, a British soft drinks company, makes the pee-charts and distributes them to top sports teams. (from New Scientist)

Reprinted from SENAV issue 184

Orienteering Technique - Traffic light orienteering

Finding each control effortlessly and quickly may seem second nature for good orienteers but they have worked hard to achieve skills and strategies that make this possible. Traffic light orienteering gives a rough framework which should help you.

Essentially traffic light orienteering is about adjusting your running speed to each section of an orienteering leg so that you slow down when map contact becomes most important ie near the control.

The technique splits the leg into three sections - green, orange and red. The colours correspond to the colours of traffic lights and relate to the notions of GO, CAUTION and STOP.

In the first part of the leg, the GREEN section, the ground should be covered as quickly as possible. The detail of the map should be ignored and large features used to keep in contact with the map. Use large features to navigate by - for example paths, tracks, streams, rides, vegetation boundaries. As you run concentrate on picking out the major map features, looking at your map whenever you can without dropping your speed. This section is assumed to be the majority of the leg. This is ROUGH orienteering.

The AMBER section is where you approach your attack point. You should slow down so that you can read your map more frequently and carefully. You need to have a preise view of where you are. This is really important new as you need to be sure of what you are looking for and be able to visualise how the ground will look as you approach the control. You also need to be aware of any collecting features which will warn you that you have overshot your control and gone too far.

In the RED section you are almost at the control. You should slow right down, even to a walk to maintain continuous map contact. Pace accurately and keep checking the compass to find the control. Tick off any features on the map as you pass them and keep a sharp look out to check you are not going off course. This is FINE orienteering. In complex areas it is just too easy to go too fast and overshoot the feature and waste valuable time. And once you have seen the feature (or better still the kite itself) you can speed up. If you have done things right everything should appear as you have visualised it and nothing is better than when that happens. But just in case ... don't forget to check the control number before you punch.

Twenty years ago

SYO had run some successful little local events at Hesley Woods, Bowden Howsteads and Sandall Beat. There had also been an event at Cawthorne as part of Barnsley's Leisure and Pleasure Festival.

The British Champs had been held on South Wales and SYO had come 4th in the Men's Open (Dave Bradley, Tony Farnell and Don Hill) and 1st in the Short Open (Pete Lewis, Keith Tonkin and Arun Sahni).

Ian Stephenson described his successful attempt on the Bob Graham Round.

Kevin Ansdell gave an amusing account of how he had inadvertently arrived at a SYO committee meeting when he expected to find a training event instead. His account describes the inception of the SPOOK relays.

Alan Bradley described his part in a BOF trip to the Swiss Cup and the Jysk 3 Days event in Denmark. He also described it as a meaningless and ridiculous international trip to Switzerland and Denmark which had clashed with the British Champs. Rob Pearson, Sally Soady and Adrian Pickles has also been selected by BOF to go on the tour.

A letter to the editor from Jef Newsam, a junior orienteer who had got into orienteering after being introduced to it as a school student, pointed out the need for SYO to do more to encourage youngsters into the club.

Squire Thurg, son of Dy, appeared in cartoon form. He had decided to do some interval training. "By all accounts it's done young Stan o' the field a power of good I must give it a try". So he got his serf to do 10x800 intervals and 6x200m!! "Egad I feel better already!" Was this drawn by John Dyson or about John Dyson or both?

Scottish 6-Day event - Moray 2003 - Accommodation

Orienteers who intend coming to the 2003 Scottish 6-Days in Moray next August and require accommodation, especially self-catering, are reminded to organise their accommodation as early as possible. Moray is a popular tourist destination and can get booked up early.

The organisers have been in touch with the local tourist authority, Grampian Tourist Board, who have assured them that accommodation is still available. They are working with the adjacent tourist authority, Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board, to ensure that all requests made to them for accommodation are met.

For further information contact the two tourist authorities, information on the event website http://www.moray2003.org, or see the event information brochure which contains an accommodation booking form.

The event will run an orienteers campsite near the event centre in Forres. Details on the website or in the event information brochure.

Anyone requiring a brochure should contact Moray 2003, PO Box 13831, Penicuik, EH25 9WA, Scotland, UK

Armchair Training

Attack points - (This article is part of a series which were published in the early 1980s but the ideas then are still relevant now. The article is adapted from an original penned by Sally Soady)

"In orienteering there are two main types of navigational techniques, rough and fine, the dividing line being the attack point.

By using rough techniques all the way to the control, time consuming mistakes are likely. Fine techniques used for a large part of the leg reduce the likelihood of mistakes but also reduce running speed. Choosing the right attack point is therefore important. Here are a few general observations.

  1. Contour features (platform, spur, re-entrant) are best approached from above where you can see their shape more easily.

  2. Line features are best approached at an angle.
    line feature approach 1 is better than
    line feature approach 2 is better than
    line feature approach 3

  3. Point features are best attacked from the nearest definite feature.

  4. Crags, embankments etc are best approached from below.

  5. Features to avoid as attack points: vegetation boundaries that may change with the seasons; small paths that may be confused with extraction lanes, sheep paths or elephant tracks or which have become overgrown; small marshes in dry weather.

  6. If the control is sited in a complex area with no distinct feature on the near side, is there anything on the far side? You can then run through the control, pick yourself up on the other side and then come back in. There is the possibility of hitting the control on the way in but not wasting time if you miss it. For example
    complex control
    Using the slope as a catching feature and the forest edge to relocate, there would be no need for accurate map reading on this leg.

  7. Controls along hillsides
    controls on a hill
    Question: Is it better to go up, down or contour?

    A) If you will leave the second control uphill it is psychologically better to come down into the second control, climbing out of the first control and using that section to plan the leg.

    B) If you enter the first control from above and then contour you will tend to come out low on the second control.

    So think of your route out of the second control before leaving the first.

  8. Recognition of a tricky control which needs a good attack point and careful navigation is important. Try to look through old maps and see where mistakes were due to no attack point, poor choice of attack point, etc, and see if they have any similarities."

Fixtures

- see the special Fixtures page.

British Women's team which wins Gold at World Student Championships includes Hannah Wootton from Sheffield

Britain's women won gold medals at the Relay of the World University Orienteering Championships. (August 24th 2002)

Results
1. Great Britain 3.14.28

RACHAEL ELDER (Cambridge University) 51.46
HELEN BRIDLE (Chalmers University, Sweden) 46.35
SARAH ROLLINS (London University, 1 year down) 45.52
HANNAH WOOTTON (Sheffield University, 1 year down) 50.15

2. Sweden 3.15.48

3. Czech Republic 3.19.26

This was only the second time that Britain has won relay medals at these championships, the previous occasion being in 1990 when the women won silver in Latvia.

The weather was very hot and the latter parts of the course were over open stony terrain where there was no respite from the sun. Luckily, for the fourth leg, there was a brief shower to cool the competitors. The early parts of the course were in quite thick scrub, with controls on very small features, and this was where most mistakes were made.

Rachael Elder ran a very steady first leg, finishing 5th with the Russians in the lead, closely followed by the Italians and Czechs. On second leg, the Czech runner pulled through to the lead, but Helen Bridle had a tremendous run, catching up the chasing group by the spectator control and pulling ahead of them into 2nd place by the finish. Sarah Rollins also had an excellent run, passing the Czech without seeing her, to hand a 5 minute lead to Hannah Wootton. Behind Sarah, the Swedish team moved up to second place. Hannah made two errors early in the course and by the spectator control the chasing Swede was only a minute down. The British team were in suspense as they waited, but Hannah kept her cool and had an error-free final section to secure the gold for Britain.

Despite a strong line-up, the British men couldn't live up to their potential on this occasion. Bruce Duncan lost the 5th control in the thick scrub, adn had to run alone for the rest of the course. Matthew Crane, taking over in 10th place, had the best run, and pulled the team up to 8th place by the end of the second leg. Ed Nash also fell foul of the 5th control, slipping to 9th place a position which Oli Johnson, with a steady final leg, maintained. The Germans led for the first two legs, but then France took the lead and Thierry Gieorgiu, the Short Distance Champion, anchored them to victory by 6 minutes.

Last modified: July 25 2003 10:22.