The Jan Kjellström International Orienteering Festival is held each Easter weekend in a different region of the UK. This year the North East hosted the event, which consists of a sprint on the Friday, two classic distance races over the weekend and a relay on Easter Monday.
As Cath’s sister lives just outside Newcastle, we thought we would combine the orienteering with a family holiday in the NE, so we decided to run in the sprint and relay, & give the classic races a miss.
The sprints were staged in and around the University and Civic Centre in Newcastle. There was a 
good atmosphere with commentary and and good visible run in. Although I have used sprint specification maps a couple of times before, this was was first taste of a proper sprint race. It definitely lived up to expectations being exciting and requiring intense concentration for the whole race. With legs as short as 17 secs and only 6 legs taking more than 1 minute, the 24 controls flew by and I managed to keep in ‘the zone’ and only made one small error, running the wrong way round a planter, perhaps losing 4 or 5 secs.
The sportident wireless results service kept me hanging for 2 hours as I slipped to 3rd, and then the last finisher of the course pushed me off the podium to 4th on M35. I was very pleased with the result, especially to just pip fellow MTBOer Liam Corner by 14 secs 🙂
After two days sampling the tourist delights of Newcastle and the coast to the north it was time for the JK relays. Other than a problem with the bussing, the event was first class, again with an excellent atmosphere. Walton Chasers teams entered two Mens Short relay teams, with selection for the two teams only being done the night before. Luckily I was put out first in the A team (perhaps my fresh legs after two days just doing a little cycling giving me edge on the others). Lining up in a field of 53 teams for the mass start there was lots of banter, and then on the horn we all sprinted for the gate out into the forest. I had a wobble on the way to the first control ,not seeing a track on the map out from the gate, dropping about 20-30
secs on the main pack, but with good control flow I managed to haul them back in and fight my way towards the front of it by the time a gaffle split us ready for the turn for home. I dropped 3 or 4 places on the final tough climb up to the finish field but handing over to Adam I knew we were not too far behind being in about 11th or so as the main pack streamed through. My result for the leg shows up 13th as I had a ‘little rest’ after handing over, before punching the finish box.
Adam had a stonking run putting down the fastest time for the middle leg before handing over to Rob Little in 3rd place. Rob’s solid performance (fastest on his gaffle!) brought us up one place to silver but not quite close enough to the leader. We knew that if it came to a sprint finish there is no-one that could stay with him up the run in.
Elsewhere the vet women also bagged a silver so it was a good day out for Walton Chasers.