JK 2011 - Northern Ireland
There was a strong ESOC presence at the Jan Kjellstrom festival of Orienteering held last weekend in Northern Ireland. There were even a few medals being awarded into the bargain, click the title for more info.
JK Sprint - Stranmillis University College - Friday
The weekend got off to a flying start with the now traditional JK Sprint, this year held around the buildings of Stranmillis University College in Belfast on an initially sunny Easter Friday afternoon. The first half was very technical and fast paced through University accommodation buildings and the second half was more spaced out campus style buildings with lots of trees and open areas. It was fast and furious with little time for relaxation as you had to always be in contact with the map. Helena Nolan produced the run of the day, finishing 2nd in W45 to pick up a silver medal. Mary Williams also had a fantastic run to finish 3rd in W60. As well as Helena and Mary’s excellent performances, the following were in the top third of the results:
M16 - 19th - Craig Nolan (65 Competitors)
M18E - 12th - Andrew Lindsay (49)
M35 - 5th - Ray Ward (29)
M60 - 21st - Dave Kershaw (83)
W18E - 5th - Rona Lindsay (33)
W21E - 10th - Claire Ward (67)
W21E - 15th - Helen Bridle (67)
W55 - 12th - Sally Lindsay (51)
W65 - 5th - Eleanor Pyrah (33)
JK Individual - Tyrella South on Saturday, Slieve Croob on Sunday
The weekend saw two individual races combining to form the JK individual competition. The Elite classes see a middle race followed by a long race for the Elite classes and two long races for everyone else. Elites are awarded medals for overall performances as well as each day. Saturday was held on the complex sand dunes of Tyrella South while Sunday was a complete contrast with the fast runnable open hillside of Slieve Croob.
Andrew Lindsay and Claire Ward had the outstanding performances of the weekend. Andrew had a fantastic clean run at Tyrella to finish 2nd in the M18E class and was rewarded with his first elite medal in his first year as an M18. Claire showed her strength in the hills with the fastest time of the day in W21E, picking up a gold medal but just missing out on the overall JK title to Tessa Hill but still picking up the 2nd place. Janet Clark won the other medal of the weekend coming 3rd overall in the W70L class, well done!
There were some good performances in the top third of their respective classes overall too:
M16A - 7th - Craig Nolan (59)
M18E - 5th - Andrew Lindsay (32)
M21S - 1st - Andrew Dalgleish (39)
M55L - 20th - Crawford Lindsay (92)
M60L - 10th - Dave Kershaw (79)
M60L - 15th - Roger Scrutton (79)
W18E - 6th - Rona Lindsay (25)
W21E - 2nd - Claire Ward (41)
W45L - 11th - Helena Nolan (66)
W60L - 5th - Mary Williams (57)
W60L - 18th - Anne Stevenson (57)
W65L - 5th - Eleanor Pyrah (33)
W70L - 3rd - Janet Clark (18)
JK Relay - Tyrella South - Monday
It was back to the dunes of Tyrella South on Monday for the JK Relay. The day started with some frantic team swapping after Janice had to withdraw after her calf injury the day before (hope to see you back running soon!) but things were all ok by the time the races started! Expectations were high for the Women’s Open team as all three (Helen, Rona, Claire) had done well in the elite classes over the weekend. They didn’t disappoint, Helen made a few errors early on but recovered to hang on to the pack and give the team a chance, then Rona and Claire both picked up places to bring the team up to 3rd.. A fine performance, well done!
The W165+ team of Mary Williams, Anne Stevenson and Alison Radford recovered from their team reshuffle to finish 4th, only 10 seconds from securing a bronze medal. A close fought thing but an excellent performance nonetheless. Their counterparts in the men’s competition (Crawford Lindsay, Roger Scrutton, Dave Kershaw) came 16th in a very strong field of 56!
Despite the long trudge to the arena on the relays it was a fantastic day to top off a fantastic weekend, hats off to NIOA for some top notch competition. The JK comes to Scotland next year with ESOC having a part in the organisation, so hopefully we will see you all there!
Full results can be found via the JK2011 website and a selection of photos taken by ESOC members should appear in the gallery (link above) soon.