The May Day bank holiday weekend saw the British Orienteering Champs visit Yorkshire for 3 days of top quality racing.

The British Mixed Sprint Relays were a new addition to the weekend and kicked racing off to an exciting start. Bradford University offered challenging urban orienteering on surprisingly hilly terrain. SYO’s mixed sprint teams performed incredibly well, particularly in the junior categories as we were missing many of our older juniors at the World Schools Orienteering Champs in Estonia. There were two fabulous wins – our vets team of Andy, Kim & Oli and our under 12s team of Robbie, Anna & James. There was a well-deserved silver for our under 16s team of Matthew, Freya & Will and there was bronze for our 2^nd under 12s team of Oscar, Lawrence & Charlotte, who all still have another couple of years in this category!

Sunday saw proceedings move to the Yorkshire Dales and the limestone pavements of Kilnsey. There were some fabulous performances from our members with a whopping 7 British Champions crowned. Congratulations to Robbie (M12), Tim T (M55), Peter G (M70), Charlotte (W10), Freya (W12), Kim (W40) and Amanda (W45). There were silver medals for James (M12), Ella (W10) and Judy (W65). Well done also to Freddie G who took his first victory on M10B.

The final day of racing was the forest relays at Middleton Park in Leeds. The athletics stadium made a super arena with excellent spectating. Courses were surprisingly challenging with lots of runners getting caught out by the numerous thickets and paths. Relay day also saw the return of our WSOC juniors which bolstered the numbers in the junior classes. With 5 class wins and 4 other podium positions it is safe to say that SYO had a very successful relay day! Congratulations to:

1^st Women’s Open – Kim, Mary & Cat
1^st M40 – Andy, Nick B and Oli
1^st M50 – Martin, Bill & Tim
1^st W18 – Isabelle, Isobel & Alex E
1^st M14 – Jamie, Olmo & Conrad
2^nd W14 – Imogen, Freya & Alex
2^nd Mini – Robbie, Anna & James
3^rd Mini – Oscar, Ella & Charlotte
3^rd M18 – Dom, Max & Euan
3^rd W40 – Jenny J, Lucy & Amanda

Next year’s BOC will be held in the South East over the weekend of 19^th & 20^th March with both races to be held on a new area names Marley Heights. Get the date in your diary – we need to make sure we retain all those titles we picked up this year!

Twelve SYO juniors have been representing their country this week at the World Schools Orienteering Championships. Dom, Isabelle, Alex E, Sam C, Alex C, Imogen, Max, Euan, Alfie, Jamie, Dylan & Olmo have all performed incredibly over the 2 main days of competition.

Result highlights are Imogen's 10th & 11th places in the middle and the long, Sam C's 16th place in the middle, Max's 15th place in the long and Jamie's 19th place in the long. However particular congratulations must go to Max for his 6th place podium finish in the M2 select class in the middle distance race and to Euan for his two gold medal wins in the M2 Schools Category.

In the team competition High Storrs (Euan, Jamie, Dylan, Olmo and Alfie) cam 7th in the younger boys Schools class, the England Select younger boys team (Max & Sam) came 5th, the England Select younger girls team (Imogen & Alex C ) came 6th and the older girls select team came 10th (Isabelle & Alex E) However the best result went to the Older boys select team (Dom) who won!

The juniors still have the friendship relay to go where they team up with competitors from other nations before returning to the UK on Sunday in time for the British Relays!

Well what a weekend the JK 2019 was. No-one will forget the gorgeous sunshine, good areas, great maps, interesting courses, super organisation, lovely socialising and fabulous assembly areas. Sadly though, for many, the overriding memory will be the great results fiasco! On a positive note though, the (more or less) finalised results have been published today so at last we can celebrate the successes of the 100 plus SYO members who competed over the Easter weekend.

The weekend began at Aldershot Barracks on Good Friday with the JK sprint. Racing was fast and furious and although courses were not particularly technically difficult, keeping up the speed in the heat was certainly challenging. Eight SYO members achieved a well-earned podium finish. Well done to JK sprint champions Ella (W10) and Peter G (M70). Congratulations also to silver medallists Rachael (W35), Kim (W40), Anna (W12) and Lawrence (M10) and bronze medallists Judy (W65) and Alice (W10).

The heat continued for day 2’s middle race at Old Windmill Hill. The area’s many spurs, re-entrants, pits and knolls meant technically challenging courses. For Sunday’s long race we all travelled a little further afield to Cold Ash. The extensive path network and runnable forest meant a good result was about excellent route choice and keeping the speed up over the full distance of the course. The main JK results are determined by combining times for day 2 and 3 so our podium finishers had to race superbly over both days. Congratulations to our four overall JK Champions Charlie (M55L), Kim (W40L), Peter G (M70L) and Charlotte (W10A). Well done also to our silver medallists Lawrence (M10A), Bill E (M50L), Tim T (M55L), Rachael (W35L), James B (M12A) and Freya (W12A) and our bronze medallist Lucy (W50L). Mo also had a good weekend, winning W45S, as did Stanley who won M10B age only 7!

Easter Monday saw the turn of the relays at Minley – a runnable woodland with numerous confusing thickets. The day began overcast but soon turned into another scorcher. The mini relay got the event off to a very exciting start with excellent commentary. Sadly, however, as the main relays got underway very little information got through to the commentary team so it was difficult to follow proceedings. Many of our final leg runners spent over an hour queuing in the download tent to resolve timing issues and there was considerable confusion in the results with teams being disqualified unfairly left, right and centre. Eventually some relay prize givings took place but most were postponed (now to be presented at BOC 2019). When the results were published a few days later teams that had apparently been correct on the day were now disqualified! Whilst we have submitted an official protest regarding the disqualification of one of our Junior relay teams, we do fortunately have plenty of excellent relay results to celebrate. Well done to all our relay teams that achieved a podium place:

1^st Mini Relay – SYO Mini Bees – Oscar, Ella & Charlotte
1^st Junior Relay – SYO Beestrong – Will G, Alice & Sam T
1^st Senior Women – SYO Beewitched – Rachael, Amanda & Kim
1^st Senior Men – SYO Bee Stings – Andy, Nick & Oli
2^nd Women’s Trophy – SYO Honey Bees – Mary, Pippa & Cat
2^nd Mini Relay - SYO Busy Bees – Robbie, Anna & James
3^rd Intermediate Men – SYO Bee Awesome – Max, Sam C & Euan