News from KFO
BOC 18/19 April 2015
BRITISH ORIENTEERING CHAMPS 18/19 April 2015
Another worthwhile, but long trip to the Forest of Dean to run in two adjacent forests of deciduous trees with the occasional block of pointy trees. Makes a change from running in forests the other way round.
Individual Day – New Beechenhurst
Fast running on hilly ground in places with great visibility, but this can lead to veering off the straight and narrow if you do not stick to the compass. Lots of people running in different directions also made concentration the order of the day. The ground tends to be very soft and so elephant tracks are not the best routes for the later runners.
Excellent parking area as is the norm at Speech House.
Les and Heather had good steady runs with slight blips timewise at two controls each and both improving their places towards the end of their courses. The climb to the last control was testing. Les was just ahead of his sister-in-law, Pauline DEE, by 51 seconds.
Phil on the other hand was trying too hard and miss-punched at #8 on a not too dissimilar control – narrow wet marsh as opposed to a ditch junction with respective numbers 108 and 109. His mistake, but the numbers might have been separated more. This did not cost time so a respectable 14th position may have been on the cards, but 8 mins of mistakes elsewhere may have produced a better result. 71 – 8 = 63 = 2nd, but others will have been able to knock time off as well. Andy Hemstead did a blinder on the day in M65L being some 12 minutes ahead of the field, winning in 53mins for 7.1k. Obviously over his injuries.
| M60S | Les Smithard | 10/19 | 83:12 | ||
| W65L | Heather Smithard | 17/35 | 85:09 | ||
| D/Q | Phil Smithard | (14)/73 | (71:48) |
Relay Day - Cannop Ponds
Another parking day at Speech House and running in the wood adjacent to Beechenhurst on similar terrain, but a few more hills to test the legs. In the main it was downhill for the first half, then a battle to regain height again for a dastardly wee hill to the finish line. More conifer woods this time, so ground a little more firm with no ground cover except brashings. Open deciduous areas again very soft.
BOC 2015 – KFO Changeover – Les to Heather
Steady running by all three team members in the Mixed Ad Hoc Class (leg distances more suitable for the variety of legs in the team). No real blips at all, so improving on the performance at the JK. Legs were gaffled so no real comparisons for times as each gaffle combination had only ten runners.
| Mixed Ad Hoc Team | KFObytradition | ||||
| Leg 1 | Les Smithard | 3.8k | 45:27 | 6/10 for 41/58 | |
| Leg 2 | Heather Smithard | 2.7k | 34:49 | 5/10 for 37/58 | |
| Leg 3 | Phil Smithard | 4.9k | 43:03 | 4/10 for 32/58 | |
| Total: | 123:19 |
