SELOC members were at events far and wide this weekend, with the Welsh Champs weekend on the superb technical forested sand dune terrain of Newborough, on Anglesey, attracting four of us. Pride of place must go to Robert Seddon running Light Green on both days to earn 9th place in Saturday’s middle distance race, then an excellent 5th in Sunday’s classic race. He was just 21/2 minutes behind the winner after being in the lead at the 3rd control, collecting a few fastest splits along the way.

Lucy Seddon ran the same course as Robert each day, moving up from 23rd on Saturday to 21st in a far bigger field on Sunday. Dad Mark had to run the Blue course on Saturday as the longest on offer, taking 17th place and a few scalps in a crowded field of 109, but was surprisingly lower given his distance strengths – 21st on Sunday’s longer (9.4km/375m climb) Brown course – when a few of his scalps turned the tables. Ed Mellor ran Blue course both days, zooming from 92nd= on Saturday to 56th on Sunday. There look to have been a few snags for the organisers on Sunday as a number of experienced orienteers all mis-punched at the same controls – perhaps one of our attendees can tell us more.

Nearer home, Alan Heron and Jo Treasure both made it to MDOC’s Park and Urban event at Sale Water Park on Saturday. Both ran the Light Green, coming in close together at 20th and 21st respectively. Furthest travelled were Matt Driver and Steve Round at the London City Race, held this year near the Tower of London and the South Bank. Matt comfortably fitted in a stag weekend, Friday night’s warm-up race at Rotherhithe and Saturday’s European League race, culminating in a superb 20th place in a high class international field of 80 running the Elite Men’s class. Steve managed a degree of symmetry on the Men’s Ultra Vets course, where 70th place put more than 20 runners below him in the results – first time that has happened in a while!