Cecilie Andersen running first leg for Bristol in the JK Trophy, photo: Rob Lines
The final day of the JK festival on Easter Monday was Relays at Middleton Park Leeds, the location of the last British Relays before COVID, six years ago. Back then the winners were Yorkshire clubs Airienteers and South Yorkshire. This year the wins went to Scottish clubs, Forth Valley and Edinburgh University.
Rachel Brown hands over to Isobel Howard, photo: Rob Lines
M21 The JK Trophy
- Forth Valley Orienteers (Peter Molloy, Chris Smithard, Graham Gristwood)
- Octavian Droobers (Phil Vokes, Matt Elkington, Nathan Lawson)
- Auld Reekie (David Bunn, Alasdair Pedley, Boyan Ivandjikov)
- Interlopers (Alistair Masson, James Ackland, Aidan Smith)
- Edinburgh University (Alex Weatherill, Michael Bishenden, Thomas Laraia)
- Manchester & District (Matthew Fellbaum, Duncan Birtwistle, Tom Fellbaum)
Forth Valley Orienteers, photo: Rob Lines
W21 The Women's Trophy
- Edinburgh University (Fiona Bunn, Rachel Brown, Isobel Howard)
- South Yorkshire (Laura Robertson, Freya Tryner, Chloe Potter)
- Forth Valley (Alison Smithard, Clare Stansfield, Grace Molloy)
- Auld Reekie (Niamh Hunter, Ellie Bales, Helen Ockenden)
- Interlopers (Aoife McCavana, Louise Adams, Mairi Eades)
- Sheffield University (Rebecca Ward, Daisy Rennie, Jocie Hilton)
Edinburgh University OC, photo: Rob Lines
On The Red Line These races are not easy to get top spots in. Many congratulations therefore to those who did that. It looks from the results as if the racing was fast and tough at the front, and we continue to think relay days are among the best days in the sport.
34 teams of three ran the JK Trophy and 16 teams of three ran the Women's Trophy. Neither course is particularly long (both were won in under 90 minutes) and with 2600 orienteers competing at the festival you might expect larger fields. Of course probably most would cite the age demographic of UK Orienteering saying a large majority are too old to manage the courses. Also it's a fourth day of running after three previous competition days (sprint, middle, long) of orienteering so quite a few head home without going to the relays. A key factor is podium places are up for grabs in even shorter open relays and the 120+ age class.
So let's mention that two teams from St Andrews Glasgow now have the 2025 JK Trophy Relay on their palmarès, and the Welsh club ERYRI and "DMC" joined the top UK clubs in running teams in both the relays. (Dear Reader, if you like a puzzle there were seven others clubs with teams in both relays, of which two are non-Uni English clubs?) Also nice to see two runners who've done several international relays on first legs for their clubs: Cecile Andersen (4th in W21E overall) ran first leg in the JK Trophy for Bristol, and WOC Sprint Medallist Alice Leake ran first leg for Airienteers in the Women's Trophy (although now retired from internationals Alice was less than a minute down on the leg.) We hope that was a fun experience both for them and those running near them out in the forest.