Peter Bray, running in after 17.8km and 480m climb, photo: Wendy Carlyle
The new British Champions are Peter Taylor-Bray and Julie Emmerson.who took the wins in the open classes at the British Long Champs on Saturday 25th March 2023.
The races were in rolling mixed woodland at Cold Ash in Berkshire, as used for the JK2019 Long Race.
The day afterwards, the British Relay races were held at Hambleden Woods near Henley-on-Thames. The premier class relays were won by the Coventry club Octavian Droobers (men) and Edinburgh University (women).
Across all courses there were 1300 runners on Saturday and 800 on Sunday.
Results Page - British Championships 2023 - includes Officials' Comments
Results at British Orienteering - Individual Day
Winsplits - British Individual Long Distance Champs
Winsplits - British Relay Champs
The M/W21E Podium. Champions: Peter Taylor-Bray and Julie Emmerson, Silver: Joshua Dudley and Cecilie Andersen, Bronze: Nathan Lawson and Niamh Hunter. photo: On The Red Line
British Champs
The courses were planned for winning times of 75 minutes for women and 95 minutes for men.
M21E course
The men's race was quite close, with a winning time of 96:40 and four runners finishing within 2 minutes. Peter Taylor-Bray of Manchester & District OC and Nathan Lawson of Octavian Droobers were within a few seconds of each other coming up to the one hour mark, with Joshua Dudley of MAROC (and IFK Göteborg) a minute behind. Chris Smithard of Forth Valley was two and a half minutes down. Over the last 40 minutes, Peter gradually consolidated a lead, with Joshua running slightly quicker and overtaking Nathan and none of them losing significant time. Chris was the fastest of all and he nearly got third place.
From Winsplits it looks as if Peter and Chris ran the entire time on their own. Joshua and Nathan caught runners who had started ahead of them (3 minute start linterval) and ran some controls with company, but then ran alone again. The finishing order (note Oli Johnson, four times past champion, and now M45, in fifth place):
- Peter Taylor Bray, Manchester & District OC,
- Joshua Dudley, MAROC
- Nathan Lawson, Octavian Droobers,
- Chris Smithard, Forth Valley,
- Oli Johnson, South Yporkshire Orienteers,
- Thomas Wilson, Clyside Orienteers.
Peter Taylor-Bray, on the run-in in the colours of his Finnish club Navi, photo: Wendy Carlyle
W21E course
As noted in our preview for the weekend Julie has run only one ranking points race since coming 3rd at the 2021 British Champs. She did run at four JWOC (Junior World Champs) between 5 and 10 years ago. And notably she is an exceptional cross-country runner, coming 8th in the National Championships last month.
Her winning margin was two and a half minutes. After a small error but otherwise a stable start she was fourth after 30 minutes running. The splits show some fast legs from that point, taking the lead at 40 minutes and then extending the lead for the rest of the race, finishing in 85:49.
- Julie Emmerson, Octavian Droobers,
- Cecilie Andersen, Bristol OK,
- Niamh Hunter, Edinburgh University OC,
- Emma Wilson, Clydeside Orienteers,
- Eilidh Campbell. MAROC,
- Lucy Walker, Devon OC.
Julie Emmerson, photo: Wendy Carlyle
Women's Premier Relay
Edinburgh University's First Team runners were all fastest on their leg: (L-R) Fiona Bunn, Niamh Hunter, Eilidh Campbell, photo: Rob Lines
The women's short relay (3 x 3.6km legs) was the preferred choice of most clubs, with 20 teams making that start line and only five, including two from Edinburgh University, the premier class (3 x 5.1km legs) start. There were more teams in the W18 relay (seven) than the women's premier.
The other premier class entries were South Yorkshire, Lakeland and the mispunching South London. It's not so lonely for the few teams though, as they run the same course at the same time as the M40 relay (one men's team finished ahead of the pictured EUOC women's team).
Interestingly the first and third finishing teams on men's short relay had top women runners on first leg: Emma Wilson of Clydeside (4th in W21E) and Rachel Duckworth of Derwent Valley (winner W20E). Cecilie Andersen and Rachel Brown ran in the men's premier.
L-R Kim Baxter, Imogen Pieters, Chlöe Potter (South Yorkshire, 2nd), Eilidh Campbell, Fiona Bunn, Niamh Hunter (EUOC, 1st), Isobel Howard, Fiona Eades, Mairi Eades, (EUOC, 3rd). photo: Rob Lines
Men's Premier Relay
The Men's Premier Relay start
The men's premier race, by contrast, had over 20 entries (similar to numbers on the men's short) and it produced an absolutely cracking race at the front! The Ivarnational podcast remarks what a pity the BBC (who actually were there with a local TV news crew) hadn't covered it!
(Incidentally the podcast makes the good point that after the winter, at the start of the season, less stellar performances by an athlete are not so significant because they can be for all manner of reasons, but look out for the good performances which show things are surely going well for the athlete.)
In the men's premier relay athletes ran well, they raced in to a nicely laid out changeover, positions changed continually (to an extent due to the planning) and after an hour and a half of racing, we had three international runners (all have run at a World Champs), and all of whom had run the long course the day before, battling for the medal positions over the long run-in approaching and in view of the crowd, eventually finishing within a span of a few seconds. Well run Will Gardner, Chris Smithard and Jonathan Crickmore.
It is hard to be sure what happened (the finish timing control was a bit after the handover/finish and runners took variable time to reach it) but there was plenty of great racing. Most, but not all, of the stronger teams put their best runner on the last leg. In some cases though, it seems they took the first leg, as is often the case with less competitive teams.
Nathan Lawson of Octavian Droobers established over two minutes lead on leg 1 (he was running fastest, but he had a quicker first gaffle.) After the gap came Edinburgh University (David Bunn), Octavian Droobers II (Duncan Birtwistle), Lakeland (Joe Woodley), Cambridge University (Luke Fisher), and Southern Navigators (M16 winner Tommy Rollins.)
On leg 2 Octavian Droobers dropped to second, overtaken by James Ackland of Cambridge University. James Hammond, the M18 champion, ran the fastest time, bringing Forth Valley from 13th to 3rd. Edinburgh University (Matthew Gooch) were fourth, and Oli Johnson brought South Yorkshire up to 5th. The two James's had the gaffle combination that Nathan had had.
On leg 3 it was South Yorkshire's turn with the quicker first gaffle and Jonathan Crickmore took advantage. At the common control afterwards Jonathan had caught Will Gardner (Octavian Droobers) and Chris Smithard (Forth Valley) and they were all together (four seconds spread.)
Chris and Jonathan then had the same course (but of course probably didn't know that) whilst Will had one of the other options. There were not many shared controls but there was good visibility and similar routes, so they probably had more idea than in some close situations. It may be that Chris made a better route choice during a longer leg. Anyway, somehow, at a common control before the final gaffled control which was not so far from the finish, Chris had a 20 second lead. The next leg was a longer one but with a straight route, a run across a valley and up and over a ridge. Will's control was potentially quicker (by 15 seconds?) It's not the quickest of three options at this point: from #133 he has #141, but the other two have the slowest one #140. Will and Jonathan have loaded GPS tracks and they both ran the leg well, on much the same line and at much the same speed. Maybe it was the same line Chris took ahead of them. When they got close they diverged and both ran in to their own controls cleanly. Shortly after, Will has caught Chris and they're together at the penultimate control (at #142 ) which Jonathan punches 15 seconds behind. The course is then maybe 25 seconds of navigating steep downhill to the final control, and then 400m of fairly flat no navigation running to the finish. Just what you want the day after 100 minutes tough racing the day before. Edinburgh University were fourth.
Routegadget - British Relays 2023
L-R Andrew Llewellyn, James Hammond, Chris Smithard (Forth Valley, 2nd), Will Gardner, Nathan Lawson, Phil Vokes (Octavian Droobers, winners), Jonathan Crickmore, Euan Tryner (South Yorkshire) - not pictured Oli Johnson. photo: Rob Lines