News
World Championships Update
Posted: 27/08/13
This week the British MTBO team are in Estonia racing the World Mountain-bike Orienteering championships. Representing Great Britain are Andy Douglas and Ian Nixon (Male Elite); Emily Benham (Women Elite); Edwyn Oliver-Evans (Junior Male); and Keith Dawson (Open male). //
//Between 27th and 31st August the team will compete in a sprint, middle and long distance race, as well as the team relay. After winning the European middle championships, Emily Benham will be hoping to replicate her good form and win more medals. //
//The sprint area today consisted of mainly urban roads and paths with a dense network of ski trails to the west of the map, which caused difficulty for many riders- including Edwyn Oliver-Evans, who lost 7 minutes at a control in the area. This set the tone for Oliver-Evans' race, who finished a long way down the standings, despite a handful of top 10 splits.//
//In the Elite men Andy Douglas managed to achieve a personal best result, finishing 24th in the sprint, a highly commendable result in such an elite field. He also managed to get the fastest time for the split from the final control to the finish. Ian Nixon, also competing in the elite men, finished a reasonable 48th position, after having a few navigational difficulties on the early controls among the dense network of ski trails. Both riders are still battling it out for the single place available for the elite men in the long distance race on Saturday.//
//Finally, in the Elite women's race, Emily Benham finished just outside the medals in 5th position, despite mechanical problems. However, due to an out of bounds ambiguity, around 50 riders, including Emily and other high profile athletes, were later disqualified. This unfortunately effected all categories resulting in an official protest, which was later dismissed.//
//Tomorrow the riders will face the middle distance world championships, where the terrain varies from flat dense woodland to hilly forests with large networks of tracks. More news to follow.