JK weekend: Lots of fun and success

A goodly sized contingent made the long journey down to South Wales for this year’s Jan Kjellstrom weekend, traditionally held over Easter, and comprising 4 days and 4 different orienteering disciplines. Full results are in the Apr 19th newsletter.

Friday’s Sprint race round Swansea University saw Quentin Harding open his account with an emphatic win in the M60, despite losing a minute on the second leg. Ruth Ker finished top Brit in W55, losing out by the narrowest of margins (1 second) to the Finn Annamaria Vierikko. Other Gold/Championship times were recorded by Lois Parker (W20 Elite, 8th), Luke Fry (M18 Elite, 17th), Susan Birtwistle (W65, 12th) and Andrew Kelly (M60, 12th).

Quentin continued his run of success in his new age class, with another win in Saturday’s Middle Distance race at Clydach Terrace, leading a Yorkshire 1-2-3. Ruth was Claro’s only other Championship time on a day where these were remarkably rare, finishing 7th (and 5th Brit), whilst Liz Drewe posted an excellent 8th in W40. In the shorter classes, Luke Fry and David Day achieved podium places, both finishing 2nd in their respective classes M18L and M70S.

Pwll Ddu proved a tough venue for Sunday’s Long race, but that didn’t seem to stop Quentin, who rounded off the M60 individual races with a hat-trick of wins, and a margin in the overall competition of 5 mins over 2nd and 14 mins over 3rd! Liz’s 4th place in the W40 class saw her climb 3 places to 5th overall, whilst Ruth was the club’s third Championship time, finishing 9th in W55 which consolidated her 7th overall and 5th Brit placing from Saturday. Luke and David repeated their 2nd place runs from Saturday to retain their positions in M18L and M70S, whilst Sharon Bowes’ 3rd place in W50S saw her move up into the top 10 overall.

The weekend finished with Monday’s Relays at Caerwent, where Claro fielded 4 teams. Leaders of the pack were undoubtedly the Women’s Short team, where Liz, Ruth and Vicky Bailey produced a superb 3rd place to finish on the podium! Quentin, Graham Ramsden and Andrew Kelly were 9th in the Men’s Vet’s class, Quentin emulating Liz by coming back on first leg in the lead. In the Men’s Short, Luke Fry, Kevin Francis and Will Drewe were 14th, whilst in the Ultra-Vets, David, Linda Kelly and Sue Birtwistle were 23rd, meaning that everybody successfully completed! All in all, it proved to be a thoroughly successful and enjoyable finale – and well done to Team Manager Ruth on making all the pieces of the relay jigsaw fit together so well!

Full cast list: Vicky Bailey, John Birtwistle, Sue B, Sharon Bowes, David Day, Charlotte Drewe, Liz D, Will D, Kevin Francis, Luke Fry, Quentin Harding, Andrew Kelly, Linda K, Ruth Ker, Adrian Parker, Jemima P, Lois P, Luke P, Graham Ramsden plus supporting teams!

(Photos: Podium: Will Drewe; Sue and group: Andrew Kelly; all others: Wendy Carlyle).