MTBO EVENT INSIDE PARK BLANDFORD

Another great event with 3 disciplines taking place on the one day. In the morning there were a range of foot O courses on offer and these were followed in the early afternoon by the 2 MTBO courses and then at dusk a night event. Several competitors did complete all 3 events to their credit on what was a bright and sunny day but bitterly cold if you had to stand still for long.

However we were again pleased to see a number of competitors who were taking part in an MTBO event for the first time and this included a number of pupils from Swanage Middle School who arrived to do the foot O in the morning and brought with them an impressive trailer carrying some 10 bicycles so that they could attempt their first MTBO event in the afternoon. Credit to them all who very successfully completed the short course.

On the long course Ivor Powell was again impressive completing the 9.1K straight line course in an excellent time of 41 minutes and 23 seconds. Inside Park is a private estate with 5 different woodlands joined by tracks and paths but once in the woods the paths were small and tricky with many tree roots to negotiate. However these did not seem to trouble Ivor. Stuart Norman was again second some 4 minutes behind Ivor and it was good to see the intense competition between Nigel and Emily Benham but in Emily’s defence having been beaten by her dad she had run some 20K in the morning.

On the short course Tina Stratford of WSX Orienteers showed the way home with an impressive 13 minutes lead over Tamer Bereiki from Kingston Maurward College.

These 3 in one day events are proving very popular for Wimborne Orienteers where the MTBO event is normally fairly low key but there does seem to be a market for them. I can thoroughly recommend the formula to other clubs and if taken up this would enable us to see more MTBO events around the country.

Thanks again to all Wimborne Members who helped on the day to make it such a great success.