Apologies for a rather belated review of BOK achievements at the JK. It will surely be remembered as a magnificent weekend, blessed by superb weather on all four days. BOK members played key roles in the staging of the event, with Mike Forrest as overall coordinator, Alan Honey as planner of the Sprint courses and Mark Saunders, Alice Bedwell and Charles Daniel as planners for the individual days. Many others put in a lot of hours on the organisational side, particularly Dave Urch and Margarette Parker as joint Organisers on Days 2 and 3 as well as the large contingent of car parking helpers and volunteers for other assorted tasks.
The Sprint day at UWE was probably a novelty for some and proved very popular with those taking part. The elite runners showed the rest of us how it should be done and the finish 'arena' provided an exciting finale for spectators, with ex-BOK Oli Johnson finishing 2nd in the Open class. Ifor Powell was the highest placed current BOK member in the Open. Other notable performances included David Hunt (16th in the Mens Vet), Keith Jones (9th in the Mens Super Vet), Rowena Johnson (15th in the Junior Women) and the trio of Jamie Hayward, Lee Turner and Ben Kelsey (29th, 31st and 34th respectively in the Junior Men).
The individual days in the Forest of Dean were also very enjoyable, with the planners giving us excellent and varied courses in good, runnable terrain. Congratulations to our podium finishers - Luke Grenfell-Shaw 1st on M14B (winning by nearly 20 minutes); Jessie Benjamin 2nd on W14B; Clive Hallett 1st on M40 (despite nursing an achilles injury that prevented him from running in the relays!); Andy Creber 2nd on M45S; Denis Hamment 2nd on M80; and both Pat Grenfell (1st) and Anne Donnell (3rd) on W75. Jackie Hallett just missed out despite a good run on Day 3, finishing 4th overall on W50L.
The Relay day at Caerwent army camp provided a different but equally enjoyable challenge, although the courses used less of the fast and potentially confusing central camp area area than expected. But there was plenty of opportunity for mistakes as some of us found to our cost, even at the final controls in view of the spectators! A last minute re-shuffle of the teams to replace Clive reduced our winning potential, but the BOK Bullets (Ifor Powell, Charles Daniel and Mark Saunders) still managed 3rd place in the M120+ class. Other strong performances from our 19 teams included BOK Bongos (Jenny Grenfell-Shaw, Pat Grenfell and Alison Simmons) and BOK Beetles (Helen Kelsey, Anne Donnell and Rachel Dennis) - 9th and 10th respectively in W165+.
A great weekend of orienteering. Full results for all four days are here.
