Phew!
We are smashing through these weeks! From some very speedy intervals on Tuesday to mountains of mac ‘n cheese whipped up by Joel on Wednesday, followed by Calton Hill technique on Thursday, we’d done so much before the weekend even started!
This weekend our members have been busy flying the flag for both GB and the home nations! Over in sunny Switzerland we saw Bish, Finlay, Emily, James, Freya, Scarlett, Tommy, Anna and Coach Dan don the tricolours to waltz around some Swiss hills in super speedy times at the Junior European Cup! In the relay, Emily and Freya helped bring GB home as the 11th nation, while James and Finlay delivered strong performances to help land GB in 8th place. In the sprint Emily absolutely smashed it for 6th place and a podium position!! Bish was the best-placed male EUOC runner in a very impressive 20th. Finally, on Sunday’s long, after a trip up the mountain railway to the start :o, James and Scarlett ended up the best placed EUOCers in 15th and 22nd place, respectively!! Absolutely incredible stuff from all, truly wonderful to see EUOC represented on the world stage!
On the other side of the Irish Sea there was a fierce battle between the home countries for the overall title at the Senior Home Internationals. The stoney slopes of the Mourne mountains saw Charlie take 3rd in the M21E, Hannah take 3rd in W20E and Daisy and Joel smash it out of the park to win W21E and M20E, respectively!! The views of the hills certainly made up for the tough courses, though your captain is still recovering from falling arse first down a cliff into a gorse bush, something the view couldn’t quite improve… The relays the next day saw the visibility lower to about 25 m which really put the runners through their paces. Daisy helped bring the Scottish women to victory; Kate made a rare orienteering appearance (orienteering >> rowing) to help a silver-placed Scottish team, with Hannah running a solid 1st leg in the 3rd-placing English team. In the men’s, Charlie anchored an English first team to victory, Wozzle sharpened his elbows as he barged into Angus (poor show…) during his team’s campaign for 2nd, and Thomas and Angus made up 2/3 of a Scottish team for 3rd. In the end, after a tie on both the individual and relay days between Scotland and England, following some intense rulebook scrutiny, Scotland were declared the victors!!!! The real question is whether the Scottish juniors can replicate the seniors’ success?? Good luck to all our athletes at the JHIs in Scotland this weekend!!
And as the next week rolls in, I have to say, over and out!
Izzy :))
As always if you are struggling at all or just fancy a chat please feel free to reach out to either myself or our Wellbeing officer Wozzle; we are always very happy to help or just listen!
