The 2012 EYOC Relay took place at Lac de Vassiviere yesterday - Sunday 1^stJuly.  The course for all age groups could be described as ‘a course of two halves’.  The first half was quite straight forward, a long run past a spectator point and then a technical loop that could be described as ‘tres difficile’!

The M16 went into the race with high hopes.  Dane Blomquist finished the first leg in third position and handed onto a determined Joe Woodley who ran hard all the way to hand over in first place.  Sasha Chepelin ran neck and neck with the 3^rdleg Polish athlete and they came through the spectator point together.  However, the second half of the course got the better of the Sasha and he was disappointed to bring the team home in 7^th.

Julie Emmerson off to a steady start

In the W16 Julie Emmerson should be singled out for a superb performance.  Julie went out on the first leg and rather than going with a very fast pace that was set by the Polish athlete, Angelika Mackejewska (winner of both the Sprint Distance and Long Distance races), she ran her own steady race and came into the finish in a group of 4 and passed onto Natalie, our second leg runner, in 3^rdplace.  Sarah Jones brought the team home in 10^th.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish a team in the W18 as Rosie Watson had to withdraw from the competition because of injury.  The M18 result also didn’t count due to a mis-punch on the last leg.

Full results can be found on the European Youth Orienteering Championships website http://www.eyoc2012.fr/