It's been a long time since I wrote anything for JPE but as the only thing I have to do these days is revision for some daft exams called A levels it would seem that writing something to be published as part of the web based Points East would be sensible. Not that there is anything much to write about. I won't bore you with yet another article saying "There is a foot and mouth epidemic which is stopping us orienteering" because I'm guessing you already know that.
Instead, news from the junior world that is still semi-functioning. The good thing about international competitions is that there aren't any restrictions on them so when Suzy Robertson of SOS was selected to run for England in Interland 2001 it was a welcome interlude of orienteering in an otherwise empty calendar. Her report is as follows:
Interland 2001 was not only an opportunity to represent England in orienteering but simply to orienteer. On Friday 23rd March after having our disinfected O shoes inspected we prepared ourselves for a long coach journey. Firstly our team manager briefed us: he passed round the trophy that was won last year and basically told us to come back with it again this year. He also explained the scoring system, which had changed since England had won the last six years or so. Instead of counting the position of the top x runners regardless of age class, two people were to count from each class from M/W18/20 upwards and one in each of the junior classes.
The Friday night was spent at a youth hostel in Genk, Belgium. Saturday consisted of a short morning in Cologne checking we knew where the youth hostel was and then we had a brief time in Cologne itself. The junior section of the team (the team ranges from M/W14 to M/W 65) decided that for some reason the training event in the afternoon and the competition tomorrow were insufficient exercise for one weekend, so we climbed up to the top of the cathedral (extra hill training), before refuelling ourselves with a chocolate donut. The afternoon consisted for us of a training event, but for the Germans this appeared to be an important short race. This gave us an opportunity to remember how to orienteer which would be useful for the following days event. before starting there was some debate as to what a triangle in a circle meant in the control descriptions and I was even more confused to discover at this control a man holding the SI unit in which I punched - was this a new type of control unique to Germany? However, on finishing one of the older England team members described how he had run after a farmer who had removed the control and was carrying it away, which explained the man holding the SI unit in front of what I was told was a charcoal burning platform. The forest itself looked rather East Anglian in nature with a few more contours. Then it was back to the youth hostel to prepare for the main competition.
The day of the competition arrived with the rain - it had been so hot and sunny the day before that someone had braved shorts for a while, but now it was cold, wet and miserable. The team were not the most lively looking bunch that morning, as we had lost an hour a night since the trip had begun so it felt to our bodies that we were getting up at 5am and running about 8am! The start itself was interesting as we had been told that there was an 8 minute call up, however on arriving there we realised it was to give us time to climb a big hill during the pre-start. The warm up track, which appeared to be a marsh, didn't look promising for a nice run. On reaching the start line (having opted for walking up the hill rather than running as some keen people had), I hoped for a downhill start, or even a flat first one or two controls, but no, my first leg seemed to contain all 220m of climb. After that I had a very pleasant run, catching up two people I think were on my course, but unfortunately being overtaken by another. I had a fairly good run despite at one point being in a patch of green having intended to be on a path, though the last kilometre did contain a few minor errors as I became increasingly tired. I managed 72:10 for a 7.3km course with 220m of climb which I was pleased with, as it was the D20 course (I had been reserve until someone dropped out because of illness). However, there were numerous victories for the England team and we managed to retain the trophy for another year. All in all it was a great weekend, the only disappointment being having to miss the individual prize-giving in order to catch our ferry home.
Thanks to Suzy for that and congratulations to both Suzy (W18) and Chris Sellens (M18, also SOS) who have both been selected as travelling reserves for a European junior international competition in the Czech Republic in the summer.
Now, all major events have been cancelled or postponed and the majority of areas have been closed but what are you doing to keep yourself fit and in touch with orienteering? International competitions are all very well for those selected to be in the team but what about those of us who aren't? David West provided a very interesting article in the SOS newsletter about his other sport hockey and the SOS juniors are putting the Easter holidays to good use by getting together and training. Town parks are great places for a training event and not many of them have been affected by foot and mouth. SOS club captain Martin Sellens put on a Norwegian type event in Wivenhoe Park last week and another one is planned for the Naze this coming weekend. Let me know what you or your club are doing to keep orienteering alive.
And with that I think I'll sign off - it hasn't been a very newsy article but at least it's something. Oh and by the way, East Anglian juniors get to keep the inter-regional trophy for longer because the Inter-Regional Champs have been postponed! Good luck to all those hoping that "all known form" instead of selection races will earn them a place on tour. Watch this space for the undoubtedly long list of East Anglians selected. Keep fit and have fun.
Eleanor West (SOS)