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Notable Results by SOC members at the British Championships Saturday 14th -Sunday 15th May

By Kevin Bracher , 16 May, 2011

Quite a few Club members travelled up to the British Championships over the weekend of the 14th-15th May.

The Individual event was at Warncliffe on the Saturday.

Both Tim and Jane Morgan were just out of the medals. Tim finished 4th in M14L and Jane was 4th on W50L. Jane was just 11 seconds off of a podium spot.

Jack Hutchison also had a great result after nearly a year out of the sport. Jack came a tremendous 6th in M65L and enjoyed meeting up with some old friends.

Jean Velecky completed the W85 course rounding off  some impressive individual performances.

As for the rest of us, we had too many small and not so small errors that put us down in the pack.

Just one of our Relay Teams to mention from the Sunday at Tankersley Wood.

In the Men's Short, (a hotly contested class) Tim Morgan put in a solid performance on first Leg coming home in 15th position.

Jamie Hicks then stormed round posting the fastest time for the second lap and dragging the team up to 6th place in the process.

The pressure was on and Simon Bevan kept his cool and brought the team home in a creditable 7th place out of 44 teams.Great runs by all three!

This was no mean feat as it was a very challenging area that caused many an orienteer to flounder around for some time in the complex humps and hollows.

Come to the Club Night at Fleming Park next week and see some of the courses we ran and what the maps were like!

Dorset Coast Path Relay - Saturday 3rd September

By Kevin Bracher , 12 May, 2011

This year the Dorset Coast Path Relay will take place on Saturday 3rd September

The race starts at the Devon border in Lyme Regis and ,after 104km and 3,000m of climb, finishes at the Studland Ferry at Sandbanks.

Clubs may enter any number of runners in their team; however a team must include a certain ratio of women and juniors.

Over the years the fastest teams have been those that combine their fittest runners as distance runners to cover sections of the coast path inaccessible by road. These sections range from 1mile to around 8 miles in length. Team members usually run one, two or three legs totalling around 6-7 miles in all.

These distance runners are supported by Sprint teams consisting of 4 or 5 runners who link up with the distance runners at change over points, where access by road is possible. The Sprint teams carry the baton quickly up hill or along the sea front, speeding the team through change overs and enabling the distance runners to at least start their run fresh at the top of hills and not at the bottom. It is surprising how much difference a Sprint team makes even though the individuals may only carry the baton 100m or so at a time. At least two Sprint teams are required to leap frog ahead of the baton carrier and be in place to help with the next change over.

All this needs careful coordination so that runners travel in the right groups and are in place ready to run their leg of the race. Several cars are required to ferry teams along the coast.

Simon Whipple   has agreed to be this year's Coordinator and would like to hear from anyone who would like to be involved, be it as a distance runner, sprinter or as a driver.

Pleasr contact Simon Whipple email; simon.whippleAThotmail.co.uk