On the Saturday morning, in the PreO event at Red Stone Castle, Castra, we had two British runners placed in the top six in a field of 120 competitors.

Tom Dobra (University of Bristol Orienteering Club) was a superb 5th, with 21 points from a possible 22. Tom got the same number of points as the winner, Antti Rusanen of Finland, but had more time faults at the timed control.  John Kewley (Manchester and District Orienteering Club) was placed 6th, one of six competitors with 20 points, but with the best time in the time controls.

As this event served as an exemplar for next year’s European Championships, there was a relatively informal TrailO Relay on the Saturday afternoon on the same terrain, won by one of the Swedish teams. The best British team was 13th.

On the Sunday morning, in strong winds and heavy squally showers, there was a TempO competition near Studienke. The winner was Marit Wiksell of Sweden in 286 seconds. Best placed British competitors were John Kewley (Manchester and District Orienteering Club) in 22nd place with 456 seconds. Peter Huzan (South  London Orienteers and Wayfarers) was the next best placed Brit, in 27th place with 469 seconds.

The weekend ended with a Sprint Relay race for FootO competitors in which we entered three teams, with a team of Ian Ditchfield, John Kewley and Peter Huzan being placed 2nd behind the winning Italian team.

The organising club, Farmaceut Bratislava, deserve great credit for a slickly organised weekend held in difficult weather conditions.

More information and full results for the TrailO can be found here.  

British Orienteering would like to congratulate all those on their performances at this Championships event.