Congratulations to all the SYO juniors selected to represent England at the World Schools Orienteering Championships, which will take place in Estonia in May 2019. The boys from High Storrs (Jamie, Olmo, Euan, Alfie, Benjamin & Dylan) have been selected as the English Schools Junior Boys' team whilst Dom, Alex E, Isabelle H, Sam C, Max, Imogen and Alex C will be part of the English Select Teams.

Wow – what a day!  Over 100 Sheffield School pupils travelled to Witton Country Park on Sunday 17^th November and took 31 podium positions across the whole school, team and individual competitions at the British Schools Champs!

In the whole school competitions there were 4 podium positions for Sheffield Schools. In the primary category Nether Green and Hunters Bar scored the same number of points but Nether Green took the trophy on a count back to the 5^th runner, knocking Hunters Bar down into 2^nd place. In the Large Secondary category High Storrs took 3^rd behind Ulverston and Cockermouth, knocking Torquay Boys Grammar down into 4^th. In the small secondary category Birkdale picked up 3^rd spot.

There were also plenty of medals and sweets in the age class team competitions with Hunters Bar, Nether Green, High Storrs, Sheffield High School, Notre Dame and Tapton all gaining podium positions.

In the Individual categories there was plenty of success for SYO members; well done to:

G5 1^st Ella, 2^nd Charlotte, 3^rd Alice
B5 2^nd Lawrence
G6 1^st Anna, 2^nd Sofia
B6 2^nd Robbie
G7 1^st Freya
G8 2^nd Imogen
B8 1^st Jamie, 3^rd Conrad
B9 1^st Euan
G11 3^rd Alex E
B13 2^nd Ryan

Check out the SYO facebook for photos of the day. Next year’s British Schools Champs will be held on Sunday 17^th November in the South Central region. 

Late on the Saturday afternoon before the final a DVO Facebook post popped up predicting a win for SYO. Not convinced, I questioned this prediction but the source was adamant, SYO would win based on analysis of the ranking points and the strength of our juniors. I started to believe the unlikely…..just maybe we could reclaim the trophy after 6 years away from the top spot?!

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny and it was an optimistic team of 90 members that set off from Sheffield to Haywood Warren at the northern end of Cannock Chase. Early finishers reported challenging courses on the classic spur /re-entrant terrain with the remnants of the summer vegetation causing some long times. As our later starters returned course times speeded up, thanks to the elephant tracks created by the early trailblazers and SYO were starting to record some good finishing positions. Scores were incredibly tight over the final hour with the top 3 spots changing by the minute. Eventually though the final scores were confirmed; SYO were in first place with a score of 2354, 21 points clear of FVO in 2^nd and 42 points ahead of last year’s winners BOK.

Well done to our top 25 counters, which included 3 course winners in Euan, Imogen and Dave (100) and also Kim (99), Martin (98), Jenny P (98), Peter G (98), Nick B (98), Amanda (97), Freya (96), Andy P (96), Laura (96), Dom (94), Max (94), Mary (94), Pete T (94), Ian (92), Charlie A (92), Paul B (91), Lucy (90), Alex E (90), Colin S (90), Ryan (88), Brian (88), Michael (84). However, it isn’t just about the counters as absolutely everyone plays a part in pushing down the scores of other clubs. Having a huge team of 90 people was a massive part of our success so well done everyone.

Special mention should go to Sam C, Richard and Paul T who despite scores above 84 didn’t count as we had reached the maximum number of scorers allowed on their courses. It was also fabulous to see no less than 6 M/W10s (Oscar, Caspar, Alice, Charlotte, Ella & Anna) running on the orange course, which bodes well for the future.

In the Golden Boot fastest run in competition new member Tom E was the fastest SYO member in 31 seconds. Top veterans were Simon H and Martin and fastest junior was Dom; all in a time of 34 seconds. Fastest SYO female was Imogen in 36 seconds.

Post event Peter Gorvett analysed the results to understand why we won this year. His conclusion was that compared to last year, on the whole, those that ran both years performed roughly the same so victory was down to the addition of lots of extra runners this year. This means it’s vital that you all run again at next year’s final so we can retain the trophy – it’s at Pippingford Park (part of the Ashdown Forest) near Gatwick on 20^th October 2019. Please put the date in your diary…..