Success at BUCS

This weekend was the British University Orienteering Championships, hosted by Bristol University Orienteering Club.



Saturday was the Individual race in the Forest of Dean. My mind wandered a little bit as I was more concerned with not hurting my hip on the terrain while running hard (turned out not to be a problem) so was a bit scrappy and as a result finished 12minutes down on the winner (a bit lower than I had anticipated....
GG was in a tight battle for 1st place coming through the spectator control, however Edinburgh's Scott Fraser had grown wings and flew to victory, leaving GG in 2nd.

Sunday was the relays - There were a lot of strong womens teams and ShUOCs first team were aiming not to be beaten by the Edinburgh 2nd Team (6/top 10 in the individual were EUOC). I went out of first leg with some strong orienteers and by the spectator control it was apparent we were capable of much more than not being beaten twice by Edinburgh. I felt I was running very slowly, however this pace allowed me to spike everything and keep with Jess Halliday and Rachel Majumdar on the first gaffle. I then ran the 2nd gaffle and stayed with Mairead Rocke, Liz Bridge and Becky Hoare, however they edged ahead of me on the run in putting me into 5th. On my course I was fastest and set Lauren Ferrand off with people clearly in sight to chase down! She had a great run pulling up a position to 4th and coming 2nd on her course by 4s! There were a few teams not too far ahead at this point and Laura Daniel set off well. By the spectator control she was in 2nd with Anne Edwards of Oxford and Chloe Haines of Edinburgh hot on her heals! This meant a tense wait! About 9 minutes later Anne entered the finishing field just ahead of Laura! Anne was running hard, and Chloe was nowhere to be seen! ShUOC were in 3rd! This was an amazing race for us and my first BUCS medal!