Airienteers Press Release

Big turn out for orienteering in Middleton Park

Contact: Simon Bowens 07921 039251

Over 270 runners of all ages and experience competed in the first major local orienteering event of 2012 in Middleton Park in South Leeds.

The park is well known in orienteering circles for its complex network of paths, two steep sided valleys and a wide variety of old mine workings adding to the navigational challenge.

Victory on the 8km Brown course went to South Yorkshire’s Oliver Johnson in a fast time of 42:17, over four minutes faster than his clubmate, 2^nd placed Rob Baker with Bristol’s Adam Potter a further two  minutes adrift. Local runner Pauls Liepins just missed out on a podium pace by 20 seconds.

On the 6.4km blue course, East Pennines’ Simon Martland won the course from Airienteers star juniors, Guiseley’s Joe Woodley and Ilkley’s Florence Haines. Baildon’s father and daughter Cerys and Peter Jones and Ilkley’s Tony Thornley also grabbed top ten places.

On the 4.4km Green course, Guiseley’s David Alcock was the clear winner with a comfortable six minute margin over his clubmate Lee Beavers.  The very fast junior Ruaridh Mon-Williams finished fourth on this course with Ilkley’s Sue Stevens in tenth.

On the 3.6km Light Green course, Jack Cryer from Pendle Forest claimed victory over Ilkley’s Lucy Haines with Laura King, also from Ilkley, finishing fourth with Guiseley’s Helen Anthony in tenth.

Local junior, Katy Boden, won the 5.1km long orange course with a margin of over 1.5 minutes over South Yorkshire’s David Best with Otley’s Jonathan Smith finishing in fourth.

The shorter courses are normally run by junior runners and novices trying the sport out for the first time. Local runners performing well on these courses included Headingley’s Eve Conway’s fifth place on the 3km orange course, Sammy Chavez and Amy Bowman both getting in the top ten on the yellow course and Hannah Winter and Alice Watson doing similarly well on the white course.

Full Airienteers results (with positions in brackets) were:

Brown course: Pauls Liepins (4), Tim Street (5), Neil Conway (13), Leon Foster (19)

Blue course: Joe Woodley (2), Florence Haines (3), Cerys Jones (8), Peter Jones (9), Tony Thornley (10), Robert King (14), Ian Marshall (15=), Frank Kew (15=), Peter Jones (18), Scott Marshall (19), Dave Shelley (20), Mike Winter (23), Michael Cox (24), Peter Haines (27), Martyn Gill (28), Joyce Marshall (35), Adam Smith (38), Howard Sawyer (40), Will Patterson (41), Nigel Hulley (42), Ken Patterson (43), Chris Burden (50), Gerry van Hee (54), Bill Fawkner-Corbett (58), Angela Hulley (59), Henk van Rossum (61), Nicholas Jones (ret)

Green course: David Alcock (1), Lee Beavers (2), Ruaridh Mon-Williams (4), Sue Stevens (10), Natasha Conway (15), Martyn Broadest (25), Matthew Brown (30), Simon Brook (31), Ian Hill (34), Simon Bowens (39), Eva Watson (41), Hilary Allen (46), Nicola Boon (47), Gill Ross (53), Marion Bowman (57), Alex Watkins (58), Diana Gorton (62), Fred Ross (63), Alan Parker (64), Margaret Parker (69), Chris March (70), Liz Davies (mp)

Light Green: Lucy Haines (2), Laura King (4), Helen Anthony (10), Miles Gilleard (13), Carlos Chavez (20), Jackie Coates (22), Katherine Hill (25), Helen Cox (28)

Long Orange: Katy Boden (1), Jonathan Smith (4), Lindsey King (8), Rachel Daniels (10)

Orange: Eve Conway (5)

Yellow: Sammy Chavez (6), Amy Bowman (10), Theo Bowens (17)

White: Hannah Winter (3), Alice Watson (5), Callum Watson (7), Joanna Bowman (11), Alistair Broadest (13)

The next two events in the Airienteers calendar are a night event in Lister Park in Bradford on Wednesday 11 January and a daytime race in Nunroyd Park in Guiseley on Saturday 14 January. Details of these and more can be found at the Airienteers website www.aire.org.uk