World MTBO Championships

Congratulations to SLOW’s Heather Monro, who has been competing this week in the world mountain bike orienteering (MTBO) world championships in Finland.

Heather finished a very impressive 12th place in the middle distance final on Tuesday. This was the best position ever recorded by a British competitor in the middle distance race. News from the BOF website:

In the womens race, Heather Monro revelled in the more technical nature of the navigation. She was one of the few in the team to feel she could ‘read’ the terrain and follow the flow of the paths without having to slow down too much. She finished just 2.5 mins outside the pack of women contesting the podium places, so was very happy with her ride

In Wednesday’s long distance race, Heather finished 13th, again the leading British rider. The BOF website reports:

Three of the British women all finished inside the top 30, in what they felt was a stronger field than last years race. Heather Monro was the highest placed with an impressive 13th, although she was less pleased with her ride, having made some route choice errors costing her around three minutes of time loss. Both Heather and Janine were placed highly through the spectator control, but with more than half the course still to complete, fitness began to tell towards the end for Janine as she made some small misses in the last part of the course. Winning times were over the predicted time of 85 minutes by a large margin.

Full details and results of the event can be found at the event website.