JK 2023South Lakes, 7-10 April
The 2023 Jan Kjellström Festival of Orienteering took place in the southern Lake District, with great terrain, and beautiful weather most of the time.
This year there was a good turnout of ESOC members for the JK weekend, and everyone enjoyed the lovely spring weather in wonderful scenery, with daffodils and lambs everywhere, alongside the well-organised events in interesting terrain.
ESOC Club Captain, Alison O'Neil, commented:
"The JK this year was one to remember - fun technical terrain, great weather for the most part, and a good turnout of over 30 ESOC-ers. After 2 fantastic medals in the Sprint (Silver for Janice Nisbet in W70 and Bronze for Eleanor Pyrah in W75), we specialised in 6th placings for the forest days, with Sarah McAdam in W35L, Jo Stevenson in W45L and Mary Williams in W70L all coming 6th overall. The final relay day was dominated (for me) by the disappointment of being overtaken at the final control to bring our Women's Trophy team (Helen, Sabine, myself) into the finish in 4th. Very well done to everyone who survived this tough event - bring on a faster Midlands JK next year!"
The JK Sprint (Day 1) was on Friday 7 April at Lancaster University, with the event arena in a grassed amphitheatre in the heart of the campus. The terrain was complex modern buildings, some changes of level and confusing covered sections, with paths, grassed open spaces, gardens and steps. The weather was sunny and warm.
ESOC’s best results came from Janice Nisbet (2nd in W70) and Eleanor Pyrah (3rd in W75).
Other ESOC results:
M14 (48 competitors) – Calum Robertson 9th
M21E (150) – Simon Gregersen 67th
M50 (66) – Alistair Hindle 20th
M55 (108) – Terry Johnstone 41st
M60 (106) – Keith Brown 7th, David Robertson 74th
M65 (76) – Crawford Lindsay 29th
M70 (56) – Les Dalgleish 26th
M75 (52) – Ian Pyrah 9th=, Roger Scrutton 14th, Brian Yates 44th
W16 (44) – Megan Brown 21st
W18E (41) – Maja Robertson 31st
W21E (86) – Helen Bridle 15th
W35 (16) – Sarah McAdam 8th
W45 (52) – Jane Petty 52nd
W50 (80) – Hanne Robertson 43rd, Judy Bell 49th
W60 (81) – Karena Hanley 35th
W65 (55) – Sally Lindsay 9th
W70 (41) – Margaret Dalgleish 8th
The JK Individual competition consists of 2 days, and the times are added together for the overall results.
Day 2, on Saturday 8 April, was a Middle Distance race at High Dam, north of Newby Bridge. The event arena was in a bowl between small hills, which gave excellent views of the run-in and finish. There were 3 starts, quite close together, and the walk there took longer than some expected. High Dam is a technical area of mature deciduous woodland, with open pasture on higher land, and has intricate contours and rock detail throughout. The weather was glorious but underfoot conditions were quite wet following recent rain, and the marshes were very damp.
Day 3, on Easter Sunday, was a Long Distance race at Bigland, SW of Newby Bridge. The event arena was on a steep slope above the run-in, and the route to the starts was also quite steep. The longest courses started in open land higher up, with many walls, and looped round to the more technical area of broadleaf woodland on a very steep slope. Here there were many knolls, re-entrants, crags and boulders, with intricate contours and charcoal-burning platforms dotted around. Most made mistakes, and there were some very long times. The weather was fine again, though cooler.
ESOC results overall:
M14A (45 competitors) – Calum Robertson 32nd
M21E2 (46) – Simon Gregersen 7th
M50L (62) – Alistair Hindle 43rd, Terry Johnstone 53rd
M55S (26) – Finlay Ross 12th
M65L (81) – Crawford Lindsay 47th
M70L (54) – Les Dalgleish 29th
M75L (46) – Roger Scrutton 13th, Ian Pyrah 31st
W12A (15) – Emma Daley 10th
W16A (39) – Megan Brown 28th
W18E (33) – Maja Robertson 24th
W21E (66) – Alison O’Neil 20th
W35L (13) – Sarah McAdam 6th
W45L (38) – Jo Stevenson 6th, Fran Daley 20th
W50L (53) – Hanne Robertson 31st
W50S (24) – Judy Bell 11th
W65L (40) – Sally Lindsay 12th
W70L (34) – Mary Williams 6th, Margaret Dalgleish 19th
On Easter Monday (Day 4), the JK Relays were held at Dale Park, further north. This is an area of oak woodland on the east side of the valley, with lots of intricate rock and contour detail and some large crags. The start was at the foot of a very steep slope, which gave good spectating but was hard work for competitors. Club tents and flags were crowded together at the top with spectators lining the run-out.
There had been rain overnight and the weather continued showery, so it was wet underfoot with a lot of mud.
ESOC had 8 teams, in various classes:
B, Women’s Trophy (25 teams)
ESOC Titans (Helen Bridle, Sabine Oechsner, Alison O'Neil) 4th
C, Men’s Short (48 teams)
ESOC Caesars (Simon Gregersen, Calum Robertson, Terry Johnstone) 22nd
ESOC Angels (Tom Uutela, Aki Uutela, Rona Lindsay) 39th
D, Women’s Short (28 teams)
ESOC Scouts (Megan Brown, Sarah McAdam, Maja Robertson) 9th
F, Senior Women W120+ (15 teams)
ESOC Conquistadors (Hanne Robertson, Judy Bell, Fran Daley) 13th
J, Ultra-Veteran M/W210+ (45 teams)
ESOC Overlords (Sally Lindsay, Ian Pyrah, Mary Williams) 34th
ESOC Tsars (Les Dalgleish, Margaret Dalgleish, David Robertson) 39th
ESOC Grandmasters (Keith Brown, Eleanor Pyrah, Crawford Lindsay) unfortunately mispunched
Roger Scrutton ran 3rd leg in the “AROS Antiques” team, with Robin & Sheila Strain, and they came 31st in class J.
Further details about the weekend, including links to photos, are available on the JK 2023 website.
Full results, including Routegadget and other analysis for each day, are on the JK 2023 results page of the SPORTident UK website.
Days 1, 2 and 3 were the 7th, 8th and 9th events in the 2023 UK Orienteering League – more details about this league are on the UK Orienteering League page of the British Orienteering website. With the scores for these events included, ESOC now has 15 counters and has moved up to 44th in the club league, but most of our counters have very few scores so far. The latest total for each club is calculated automatically from the 15 best club members' scores (across various age class groups) - so the club members whose scores are included may change as the year goes on and more events are included.
Days 1, 2 and 3 were also part of the UK Elite Orienteering League – see the UK Elite Orienteering League website for further details and the UK Elite League tables for the latest scores. All three days were World Ranking Events for elite runners.
Next year, the JK will be in the Midlands, from 29 March to 1 April 2024, with the Sprint event at Loughborough University, followed by Middle and Long Distance events on Cannock Chase and Relays at Stanton Moor, near Matlock.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports