JIRCs Report

SEJS 4th at JUNIOR INTER-REGIONALS

MOST IMPROVED TEAM !!!

Last weekend saw the Junior Inter-Regional Championships held in the East Midlands. A team of 21 juniors set off early Saturday morning to make the journey to Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire. Arriving at a very busy Chatsworth we went past the big house to the Deer Park avoiding the sheep along the way. The assembly was in an field off the edge of the map. First into the forest was Josh on the 9.4km M18 course closely followed by Ben on the 5.2km M14 course. The rest of the athletes went of into the forest over the next 90 mins. First back was Ben who was happy with his run. The runners could be seen heading down to the last control which was just the over side of the fence. Spectators were entertained watching the juniors cross the fence on the way to the finish or choosing to go round and through the gate, thinking about it cost time!

By 4pm all the juniors were back. It was mixed area with the start in the deer park, then up a steep wooded slope before coming back through along the slope with some tricky reentrants. Some good performances from Ben (6th), Tommy (10th), Angus (6th) and Hannah (8th). Others didn’t have such a good day but they had all enjoyed at least some of the area. Well done to those running up, Ffion J, Phoebe, Ffion B, Amelia, Lina, Aimee & Maxime. After nearly 10km Josh & Sam ended up only being 90 seconds apart.

A battle through the traffic of Matlock Bath took us to Mount Cook Outdoor Centre our base for the night. Dinner, time to socialise and a quiz lead to prize giving. The scores for the day were announced with the girls lying in 5th place out of the 12 regions, the boys results next and we were 4th only 7 points behind the SW. This put us in 5th place overnight.

With another early start on the Sunday morning, although not as early as the previous day for some, we had a very short drive to the relay area, Carsington Pastures. 4 Wind turbines dominated the area near the the assembly. It was noted that they were turning the entire time we were there., keeping warm before running was the early challenge. With a great view from the changeover over quite a lot of the area it was great to be able to spot the juniors at varying points on their run.

First out at 9am where the M16 boys - Adam, Alex, Maxime & Olin. The expected time to the spectator control was 20 mins with the leaders due back after 30mins. At 9:15 the leading Scottish teams appeared at the spectator control - it was fast! The leaders finished in under 20 mins. Adam and then Alex came back a few minutes down handing over to Tommy & Ben. Olin & Maxime a little way behind handing over to Phoebe & Ffion B who did well against the M14s. Scotland & North West were leading the way but we were not too far behind. Stan ensured we could spot him at various points in his bright leggings and Angus also chasing on last leg meant our scoring teams finished 6th & 11th. Importantly the first team was 2 places ahead of South West. In the other 2 teams unfortunately an SI issue meant one team was disqualified but that didn’t stop Sam trying to chase down Josh after the previous days result.

The girls had started at 9:10 with Scarlet, Hannah & Lina off on first leg. Again the girls were faster than predicted, with Scarlet and Hannah coming back within 30 seconds of each other. This sent Ellie & Sarah out with Maddie a little behind. The 14’s were soon back to send Aimee, Ffion J & Amelia out on W18 (for the second day). Our scoring teams ended up 12th & 17th with Scotland & North West leading the way.

With all the runners back prize giving was held early. It was great to hear that we had finished 4th overall. A great result from our team, especially as we currently have no W18s. It was great to have more than 2 runners in each age group and thanks to those who ran up one or both days over the weekend. On the way home the results were updated and we’d finished 4th in the girls and boys, resulting in 4th overall. The boys only being 4 points behind South West. The girls have a bit of a bigger gap. Our 4th place meant we were the most improved team from 2017 (7th last Year). With all of the team still being able to run next year (the same as they ran this year for most of them) we have a quite high target.

Thank you to Will, Karen & Kevin for all their help and driving over the weekend. Will kindly took lots of pictures over the weekend which can be found in this Flickr album