For the keen orienteers in our membership, the summer means a chance to combine a holiday with a multi-day orienteering competition. As usual our members have travelled far and wide attending the World Masters in Denmark, the OO Cup in France, the Oringen in Sweden, the Lakes 5 day and the Croatia Open.

WMOC, Denmark
The summer kicked off with the World Masters Orienteering Champs in Copenhagen. This event is a must do for the world's best veterans aged 35 to 95! There are 3 main competitions - sprint, middle and long and these combined with qualifiers and model events result in over a week of events. Superb organisation and wonderful weather resulted in a fabulous competition - many participants are already planning their trip to next year's WMOC in Lavia.

A handful of SYOers took part, some performing exceptionally well. The biggest accolade must go to Nick B for winning 2 bronze in the sprint and middle and a silver in the long! Special mention should also go to Laura for her 5th, 6th & 7th places in W35 and Amanda for 17th in the sprint in W45.

OO Cup, France
The OO cup is traditionally held in Slovenia but this year the organising team decided to venture further afield to the Jura region of France. The slightly more accessible location led to a swell in entry numbers with over 3000 participants. There were 5 days of competition in incredibly physical and technically challenging terrain. Every day counted so a mispunch or retiral was very costly! Conditions were sweltering but the organisation and course planning were excellent as usual. 

A good number of SYO members made the journey to this one as the event fell at the start of the school holidays. Fortunes were mixed for many. Dave, Oscar, Nathan & Jenny Peel, Andy Preston and Euan, Pete & Freya Tryner all achieved top 10s on individual days. Best overall results of the week went to Dan Tett who was 1st on Open C, Tim Tett 7th on M55 and Will Preston 7th on M10 shadowed. 

Oringen, Sweden
The Oringen is the world's biggest orienteering event with between 15,000 and 20,000 participants. This year it was held in the far north of Sweden. It's clash with the OO cup and it's slightly less accessible location meant less club members attending than usual but Aislinn, Mary and the Hartmanns all made the trip. Like the OO cup all 5 days count with the last day a chasing start. Attendees enjoyed the event reporting very technical terrain and surprisingly hot conditions.

The Lakes 5 Day

Every 4 years the Lakeland clubs host a 5 day orienteering competition. Many SYO members entered this one attracted by the good quality Lakes terrain and its relative proximity to home. Unfortunately, whilst the rest of the UK basked in the Europe wide heatwave, there was a permanent raincloud over the Southern Lakes which persisted throughout the 5 day competition!

Nonetheless participants still managed to enjoy themselves and there were some fabulous overall performances by SYO members. Results are based on your best 4 days of competition. Congratulations to Conrad 3rd M12A, Freya 2nd W12A, Imogen 3rd W14A, Euan 1st M14A, Louise 1st W20L, Laura 3rd W21L, Nick B 1st M40L, Amanda 3rd W45L, Charlie A 1st M50L, Lucy 1st W50L, Neil 3rd M65S and Peter G 3rd M70L.

Croatia Open
While most of us were getting soggy in the Lakes the Wards and the Baxters were enjoying the wonderful weather, courses and terrain of the Croatian 6 days. This is a very small and friendly competition, comprising of urban and forest orienteering with all 6 days to count! Martin, Kim and Ricky all entered M40 and came 1st, 2nd & 3rd respectively while in W10 Ella came 2nd overall.

Sunday 1st July saw 10 teams from the best junior clubs in the country gather at Arrow Valley Country Park in Redditch for the final of the Yvette Baker Competition. SYO took a team of 56 runners (far more than any other club) by coach and a convoy of cars. Our aim - to retain the trophy for the 2nd year running!

Conditions were sweltering so we quickly set up a city of tents in the shade of some large trees and set to work with the facepainting and nail varnishing in our team colours. Then it was time for our first starters to make their way to the start and soon there was a steady stream of yellow and black heading out for their runs. Within no time at all our first finishers on the yellow course were back with some good times under their belts; followed by finishers on the orange and light green. It was a long wait though for finishers on green who had a greulling 6.4km, through grotty vegetation in 30 degrees heat! Eventually though all our runners had returned producing some excellent times across all the classes.

While the results were being calculated vast quantities of ice-cream were consumed and the older juniors chilled out in the shade listening to music, while the younger ones enjoyed the playground and bouncy castle. Finally it was time for the prize giving. There was an anxious wait as BOK were announced in 3rd place on 856 points, WCOC in 2nd on 868 points and then yes SYO in 1st place on 889 points - a fabulous win! 

Well done to everyone who ran - everyone's results help to push down the scores of the other teams - but particular congratulations to our counters:

Charlotte C - yellow girls (100 points)
Freya - orange girls (100 points)
Euan - light green boys (100 points)
Conrad - orange boys (99 points)
Imogen - light green girls (99 points)
Robbie - yellow boys (98 points)
Anna - yellow girls (98 points)
Dylan - orange boys (98 points)
Isabelle Ho - green girls (97 points)
Jamie - light green boys (97 points)
Isabelle Ha - yellow girls (97 points)

Thank you to Jacky for captaining the team so superbly and to all the parents supporters. Next year the final is on 7th July in Hatfield Forest near Bishop's Stortford. Please put the date in your diary!

On Saturday 7th July the prizegiving for the 2017/18 schools league was held in lovely sunshine at the Cliffhanger outdoors festival on Devonshire Green. It was great to see such a fabulous turn out by the schools' league competitors. Medals were presented to the first 3 in each age class and everyone, who competed in 5 or more events, was awarded a certificate. Those juniors that had taken part in all 9 of the events were also specifically recognised and were awarded a prize. The first 3 year group teams in each age class were also awarded with prizes.

 SYO members featured heavily in the podium positions. Well done to:

G5 - 1st Ella, 2nd Beth
B4 - 1st Oscar, 2nd Rafferty
G5 - 1st Anna, 2nd Sofia
B5 - 1st = Robbie, 3rd = Caspar
G6 - 1st Freya, 2nd Ciara, 3rd Lotte
B6 - 1st James, 2nd Isaac, 3rd John
G7 - 1st Imogen, 2nd Millie
B7 - 1st Conrad, 2nd Jamie
G8 - 1st Josie, 3rd Carys
B8 - 1st Euan, 2nd Matthew, 3rd = Freddie & Dylan
G9 - 1st Naomi, 2nd Phoebe
B9 - 1st Will, 2nd Alfie
G10 - 1st Alex E, 2nd, Isobel, 3rd Hannah
B10 - 1st Jack, 2nd Sam
G11 - 1st Isabelle, 2nd Ailsa
B11 - 1st Dom
B12 - 1st Ryan

In the overall schools competition, Hunters Bar lifted the primary trophy with Nether Green in 2nd and Dobcroft 3rd; whilst in the secondary competition High Storrs won with Notre Dame 2nd and Tapton 3rd. 

Huge thanks to GBR team member Charlotte Ward for presenting the prizes. The 2018/19 Saturday Series kicks off in Endcliffe Park on September the 8th.