JIRCs 2017 edited by Sarah & Elizabeth Horsler

Junior Inter-Regional Championships 2017 or JIRCs for short!

Two Wimborne juniors, Sarah Horsler (W16) and Elizabeth (W14) were selected amongst a team of 23 runners who recently travelled up to Guildford to represent the South West region in the Junior Inter-Regional Championships;  a two-day event that saw the best juniors from the 12 regions of the UK compete against each other in both individual and relay orienteering competitions.

The first day took place at Winterfold; an undulating forest with a good path network. One of the main challenges was finding routes that avoided too much climb and running through the sometimes quite dense undergrowth!  The South West had three top 3 places:
Oliver Tonge:  M14 – 3rd
Flurry Grierson:  M16 – 3rd
Eddie Narbutt:  M18 – 3rd

Overall the South West had a very successful individual day to come 4th behind Scotland, Northwest and Yorkshire.

The second day, which was a relay, was held at Blackheath; a runnable mixture of woodland and heath. The terrain was flat with a large path network, making it difficult to choose between going straight and diverting around paths. The relay teams consist of a M/W 16, M/W 14, and M/W 18 running in that order.  Two members of the squad ran in an ad hoc team.

Flurry Grierson (Devon) was the first leg runner for the South West’s first seed team, and managed to mirror his previous run and came back in 3rd, only three seconds behind 2nd place South East. His team, consisting of Jim Bailey (M14) and Eddie Narbett (M18), both from BOK, also had great runs and brought the team back in first place overall.  

In the relay competition, out of a total of 30 teams, the South West came second in the men’s relay, very close on points behind Scotland.  There was a top 10 place for the second men’s team.  In the women’s competition the first south west team with Sarah Horsler came 9th and the second team with Lizzie Horsler came 10th.  The South West also came runners up in the overall relay results, beating the North West by 225 points to 219. Unfortunately the South West didn’t get a podium position for the overall competition, losing out to Yorkshire by 11 points across the two days. Hopefully an even better result can be achieved next year!

Thanks must go to Colyton Grammar School for loan of their minibus, to Chris Perry for driving it, to Tamsin Horsler for accompanying us, and to the coaches Pete Maliphant and Jeff Butt for making it all possible.

Original article Harry McMurtrie (M18, Devon). Edited with permission by Sarah and Elizabeth Horsler (Wim)