The rest of the World Orienteering Champs has flown by. Britain put in a bid to be the world’s sprint specialist on Wednesday with 5 placings in the top 20 (Matt Speake was one of those disqualfied for crossing an uncrossable fence). Special mention has to go to Helen Bridle who, having been chased round by the eventual winner, Aussie Hanny Allston, finished in fourth place, and to Graham Gristwood who showed what superb form he is on at the moment by coming ninth. I still can’t believe this is the same Graham that I once shadowed around a course at Burnham Beeches and had to keep stopping because he’d forgotten to bring his inhaler!
The Brits had an average showing in the long final. Jamie and Jon were 14th and 17th respectively and Jenny, Rachael and Alison were bunched up between 26th and 30th. Jamie, however, had a storming run in the middle distance race on Friday ending up in third place just ahead of Thierry Gueorgiou. As for yesterday’s relays, probably the least said about those the better. For more details of the British action over the week, see Jenny Peel’s enthusiastic write-ups on the British Orienteering news pages.
As for the O-manager fantasy league, it just seems to have run out of steam. I did well at the sprint with all my selections making it in to the final and a first, fourth and ninth place in the men’s final. My choices for the long and middle distance were pretty dire and they still haven’t put up the final results from the relays.