As it was a sunny bank holiday Monday, the streets were packed with shoppers, adding to the strains put on orienteers. Some streets were packed and reduced running speed...
...other walkways were smaller and were alleyways between streets
Route choice, as is a factor in all well planned sprint races, came into play and street congestion could also have played a part on your run depending on the route, unfortunately unless you knew where the crowds were likely to be you couldn't plan against it!
One of the big things about this race in particular is the level of public interaction. Publicity was high, the event had featured in the local media in the previous week and many newspaper articles of local orienteers succeeding were on show. The feeling I got from listening in on what the passers by were saying was that they either had heard of the sport before, only saw from the posters displayed in Parliament Street, or watched in wonder as runners came and went in the assemply area or punched a control. It also helped as several members of Britains elite were present in GB kit, including Helen Winskll. Jenny Whitehead and Oli Johnson.
Over the course of the races the positions changed a number of times, especially during the first few legs. In the end on the 5.5km A course, Neil Northrop of WAOC outsprinted Niall Bourke of EPOC to claim top spot by two seconds. Oli Johnson, last years winner settled for third, 35 seconds off the winner.
In the women's event Jenny Whitehead stormed round in a time over 2 minutes quicker than her fellow competitors, going one better than the second place from last year. Karen Heppenstall of CLOK and Liz Day of NOC finished in joint second with a time of 32:05 over this 5km course.
In the junior men's class, local orienteer Stuart Hooton (last year's runner up) claimed the crown, Robin Tett of SYO took second place 17 seconds down on the leader over the 2.3km course. John Butler of SBOC finished in third place by a margin of over a minute on second, meanwhile last years winner in this class Peter "slow" Bowen finished up in fourth.
In the womens junior class Jenny Thornton of CLOK and Heather Percy of EBOR reclaimed thier first and second positions from last year respectively, and Florence Marsden of MOUNT finished in third on the 2.3 km course.
Finally a big thankyou goes to the officials, Steve Whitehead (planner) Mike Ridealgh (controller) and Ann Smith (the organiser), and to York City Council for letting it all happen in the first place.
The assembly area and finish in Parliament Street
The start
An alleyway
