November Classic 2024
Shelia crossing the finish at November Classic 2024
Credit:
Goddards
On November 3rd, 16 Quantock Orienteers competed in the November Classic in the New Forest, with strong performances across several courses. The club delivered impressive results, 'punching' above its weight at this national event.
Several Quantock Orienteers made the journey to the New Forest on Sunday 3rd November to fly the flag for the club at the November Classic, with 762 people registered to race this is a significant national event. Held at King's Garn Gutter and superbly put on by Southampton Orienteering Club, the day was everything you'd expect and more. Typically overcast but not cold for November it made for pleasant running, albeit a little damp under foot in places. All courses provided some excellent terrain and challenging navigation. Vegetation was dying back nicely although not as much as would be ideal for some clean running, however the going was good all round and relatively flat which could be seen in some very quick times by the elite.
16 QO members, from W/M10 through to W/M80 punched the start and took their maps to test their skills. We had some great results against stiff competition which had come from all around the country. Pressure was on for many looking for selection to England and the Interland races next spring, this resulted in some top form.
Across the 11 courses available we had entries in 7; Adam Fieldhouse providing a very respectable 9th place on course 1 followed by Oli Rant (13th) and a muddy Robert Fieldhouse (18th), course 2 gave us Brian Pearson (27th) and Hazel Mudd (35th) - with Hazel perhaps winning the most ground covered, course 4 saw Finley Goddard (36th), Stephen Lysaczenko (127th) and Matthew Knipe (133rd) smiling across the finish line, Sheila Braine took on course 5 and crossed the finish in 88th, Tony Hext placed 54th on course 6 with Linda Mudd and Adele Appleby unfortunately picking up a couple errors, Roger Craddock showed us all how it's done for an M80 on course 7 pulling into the finish at 30th with Karen Lewis placing 39th, lastly Dylan Goddard punched out the finish in 1st with Annabelle Lewis in 13th on course 10.
As usual post race debriefing provided a lot of; “I lost 2 minutes on control xx”, “I overshot control yy” and a little “I followed the wrong track for 100m before turning back” but despite all that ‘learning’ in the bag for next time, QO was again 'punching' above its weight and proudly represented on the national stage. Here’s looking forward to some hot contest at the club championships in Ramscombe on the 9th November.
Thanks to Mark Goddard for the write up!