QO success at the British Champs 2026!

Richard Sansbury commented

I don't normally travel far for my orienteering, and usually give the major events a miss. But this one was in range for a day-trip, and having had a good run there at Creoso 2024 this time I was keen to go and try my luck at the British Championships. 

Carreg Goch is a bare lumpy hill, with limestone pavements, boulder fields, marshes and ponds, and literally hundreds of pits. The map is all yellow, not a tree or bush anywhere. Great orienteering, but you can't afford to lose contact with the map. 

From the start to number 1 was easy, just follow the paths. Then uphill to 2, I hadn't read the control description so from the map I was expecting to find it on a hill, but compass and pacing took me to a depression and there it was. Lucky me. Long leg to 3, I opted to play safe and go north, follow the track and use the fence corner as an attack point. I thought I would move faster on the track and that worked - this was my best bit! Lost time on 4, was on the wrong line of rock and it was well hidden. 5 to 8 was great although a glance to the west showed a big black cloud coming. Sure enough soon after this the sleet and hail started. I got soaked but was well warmed up by this time so it didn't affect me. I used the pond as an attack point to get to 9. Stupid mistake at 10 - I was right on it, but misread the control description and thought it was not my number. So I didn't punch and lost a couple of minutes before sheepishly returning. Easy navigation after that, I thought I was fast here, but somehow I lost time to the leaders. 

Overall a good round for me with no major mistakes, but minor ones adding up to about 10 minutes lost. Given the high calibre competition I was happy to have come in 16th out of 47. 

Mark Goddard commented

The clear blue skies and sunshine were not long lived, about 30 minutes after taking the nicer photos and basking in the relatively warm sunshine the clouds rolled in, the heavens opened and what started as heavy rain turned to heavy hail. The ground became white with the amount of hail which came down and the temperature plummeted. This persisted for about an hour before easy up to a light drizzle and then back to sunshine. Sadly this was just after Dylan had set off, resulting in most of his run being battered by hail, Finley set off in the worst of it and I set off as it started to ease a little.

A great area, very well mapped, brilliantly planned and highly technical. Precision navigation and maintaining permanent contact with the map was essential.