After several highly competitive selection races 12 juniors were chosen to represent Great Britain in the Junior World Orienteering Championships which took place in Switzerland between the 10th and 15th of July. 
3 of ShUOC's athlete's were selected to race. 
Dane Blomquist was chosen to race in the sprint and middle distance races, whilst Joe Woodley was to race in the long distance race and also the middle distance race.  Alice Rigby also raced in the women's long and middle distance. 

Dane was 41st over all in the men's sprint , competing in some slightly warm conditions. He was only 1 minute 26 seconds down on the winner and was the first Brit overall. The men's map is pictured below. 

On the Monday it was the turn of both Alice and Joe to race. Alice was 88th out of 145 competitor's and was 2nd Brit overall. The course was physically tough with quite a bit of climb, 6.6km for the women with 310 metres of climb whilst Joe has 8.8km with 450 metres of climb. 

For the middle distance race the athletes first had to run a qualifying race following the rest day on the Tuesday. There were 3 different courses for both the men and women's races. Dane was running M20-H2 whilst Joe ran M20-H3 and Alice ran the W20-H3. Dane had a great run and qualified for the A final! 

To round of the tough week all the athletes competed in the relays. Alice brought the 2nd ladies team home to finish in 16th overall! Dane ran the 2nd leg for the men's first team who finished 12th overall and Joe also ran 2nd leg for the men's second team who also finished 16th overall! 

After such a hard week came the highlight of the week... the banquet! After months of sobriety the athletes could finally let their hair down and this produced a few interesting stories! 

Great Britain finished 12th out of 39 competing countries. There were some brilliant results from ShUOC's members and the rest of the team. Meg Carter-Davies definitely deserves a mention for coming 4th in the Middle Distance A final and 7th in the sprint race. This is an amazing achievement on its own but these results were following surgery only 6 months prior.

Well done team GB! 
​ 

ShUOC are proud to announce our sponsors for the next academic year.

• Bright Bike Lights 
• Compass point
• Front Runner
• High5

We are very excited to be working with these four companies as they support us in all our sporting goals and achievements.
In the near future you should be able to see their logos (shown on the right) on our lovely new kit. 

​On the 9th of July some of our lovely members travelled to the village of Sedbergh for the 3rd race in the series of the English Fell Championship races and also the 3rd race in the British series. 
The short race summited both Knott and Sickers fell in 5.6km/3.5 miles with a total of 400m/1312ft of climb. 

The women's race began at 14:30 and managed to have the better weather the day offered, but the summit's were still covered in clag. 98 women set off ranging from 18 to over 70 year old including 3 ShUOC ladies, all in the U23 category. The race was won by Victoria Wilkinson in a time of 29:05. 
Anna Hoogkamer, running for Dark Peak, came storming in in a time 34:05 and was 18th overall and 3rd U23.
Hot on her heels was Ellie Crownshaw, also running for Dark Peak in a time of 36:30 and was 34th overall and 5th U23. 
Hannah Bradley (yours truly) brought up the rear of our girls, running for Cumberland Fell Runners, in a time of 37:37 and was 50th overall and 6th U23. 

After dodging some down pours it was time for the men's race at 16:30. 
232 men raced round the same route that the women had just raced, including 3 current ShUOC members and a few of SPOOK. The men's race was won by Simon Bailey in a time of 24:58. 
Matt Elkington, running for Dark Peak, a new comer to fell running not that you could tell as he was 18th overall and 3rd U23 in a time of 26:26. 
Tom Saville, also running for Dark Peak, chasing Matt in in a time of 27:27 was 36th and 5th U23. 
Nic Barber, running for Pennine Fell Runners, was 55th in a speedy time of 28:39 and is far too old to be an U23. 

Next in the English Championship series is a long race, Borrowdale. 

On the 2nd and 3rd of July ShUOC held it's annual exotic weekend. A weekend of orienteering and fun offered up to current and prospective members to provide some entertainment during the long uni holidays and give possible ShUOC freshers a taste of Sheffield. 
This year the exotic weekend coincided with the trial British Mixed Sprint Relay Championships, which took place around the edge (the uni of freshers halls). ShUOC entered 6 teams. 

Our Steel men, iron lady (Matt Elkington, Oliver Williams and Charlotte Ward, who ran twice), came second, 40 seconds behind the winning team.
ShUOC also stole 3rd with Now Watch Me Whip, (Nathan Lawson, Nic Barber and Tamsin Moran, who ran twice). 
Dolly Mixtures - 6th - Josh Cooper, Alice Rigby, who ran twice, and Alex Moore
ShUOC reserves - 8th - Adam Wlker, Winona Shaw, Chris Owens and Rhona McMillan
 Where are the girls? - non competative but their time places 7th - James Mellor, Will Parkinson, Tom Chiu and Tom Entwistle 

Ari Hodson also got to run twice with Chris Smithard. 

ShUOC then descended on our centre of excellence of a BBQ, some football watching and finally a trip to the finest establishment Sheffield has to offer, Corp.