WOC SELECTION RACES

Written by Ralph Street

 Last weekend saw Britain’s best orienteers gather in south eastern Estonia to fight for World Championship places. The sprint was first on Friday evening. It proved to be more challenging than expected through a good mix of very simple fast legs, with short difficult legs containing decisive routechoice or traps.
In the men’s pre race favourite Kris Jones (Forth Valley) secured top place of the Brits in 14:29, Ralph Street (South London) was second in 14:52, and Peter Hodkinson (Nottinghamshire) completed the top three with 15:21. The women’s race was extremely close with Megan Carter-Davies (Mid Wales) just pipping Tessa Strain (Edinburgh University) by seven seconds, 16:16 to 16:23. Jo Shepherd (Inverness) was third in 16:51

 The middle race was physical with many steep climbs, and also many routechoice legs. There were only 19 controls over the 6 kilometre men’s course, a far lower density than that usually encountered in Britain.
Ralph Street was the fastest British man with a time of 35:33, Alan Cherry (Eborienteers) was next home in 37:19 just in front of Peter Hodkinson 37:47.The British women were once again packed closely together, eight in two minutes and nineteen seconds. Jess Tullie (Badenoch and Strathspey) at the front with 38.07, followed by Cat Taylor (South Yorkshire) at +12, and Hollie Orr (Lakeland) +26.

 The final race of the weekend was a full on long distance with big routechoices, areas of tough green, some big marshes, and steep climbs. Alan Cherry was first home 1:46.56, Ralph Street second in 1:51.17, and Will Gardner (Octavian Droobers) third 1:53.23. Charlotte Watson (West Cumberland) took top spot amongst the British women 1:40.59, Jess Tullie second 1:43.25, Lucy Butt (SARUM) third 1:49.41.

More information on the selection races can be found on the WOC website: http://woc2017.ee/trainings and scrolling to the selection races section. The British team for WOC can be found via this link: https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/news/3741

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