The Garmin Ultrasprint in Millhouses Park, Sheffield on Saturday
12 July was a high intensity orienteering race. Competitors
ran around a variety of terrain including forest, parkland
and a specially constructed labyrinth. The fastest runners
will had to be able to combine speed and agility with lightning-fast
navigation skills. Orienteers competed from as far afield as New Zealand and Sweden!
Prizes for the 2008 event were generously provided by .
The qualification round saw four parallel heats of 1.45km with 32 controls and were won by Matt Crane, Mike Sprot, Neil Northrop and Bill Edwards in around 6 min/kms.
The final was even more complex with butterfly loops in the parkland, woodland and labyrinth to split the runners and 46 controls in 2.3km. Matt Crane of South Yorkshire Orienteers was the winner and took away the £150 top prize generously donated by Garmin. Sheffield students Dave Schorah and John Rocke finished 2nd and 3rd respectively with SYOs Ricky Baxter and Robin Tett scooping the top vet and junior prizes.
In the womens race Ebor junior Alice Leake held her nerve well to pip South Yorkshire runner Kim Buckley to the victory with Mhairead Rocke in 3rd. Mother and daughter Chloe and Sarah Haines of Airienteers took the junior and veteran prizes.
John Rocke had the following to say after his race: "Final was epic, I found it hard to keep a cool head when all about you are losing theirs. Great fun and great training, really good practice for keping good flow and looking ahead."
The event attracted much spectator interest at the popular Cliffhanger event organised by Matt Heason as orienteers whizzed around the park, crashed through the river and disappeared into bushes. Just back from JWOC Junior Team members Hector Haines and John Rocke did a highly informative talk complete with Gothenburg route choice analysis.
After the event South Yorkshire Orienteers used the labyrinth to introduce families to the sport in a very exciting fashion. Some followed this up with a trip to the Yorkshire Schools Champs the following day for their first 'real' orienteering event. The sunshine on Sunday encouraged hundreds of kids and their parents to have a go.
"Many thanks to South Yorkshire Orienteers for putting on the event at Millhouses Park. I really did enjoy it and I was certainly not alone - those I spoke to thought it great fun."
. 
