SLOW at the Oxford City Race

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CJ (SLOW/JOK) in JOK colours at the Oxford City Race. Photo by Orienteering Photographs.

Hot on the heels of the London and Cambridge City Races held over the last few months, the last day in October saw Oxford University OC host the 3rd Oxford City Race, the penultimate event of this year’s NopeSport Urban League. South London orienteers were out in force – 25 competed in a field of over 450 in total.

Unlike recent city races in Cambridge, London and others, and unlike previous City Races in Oxford, the navigation was generally very straightforward in this race, with very few tricky legs in the colleges and lots of long road legs with little route choice. This made for some very fast times and tightly bunched results, with the top 22 runners on the Men’s open course beating the planner’s estimated winning time of 35 minutes!

SLOW managed to achieve podium finishes in both the men’s and women’s open classes, thanks to two ex-Oxford University runners (competing for the ex-Oxford club JOK) – no harm in having a bit of inside knowledge of the streets of Oxford! Well done to Ed Catmur who finished 3rd in the Men’s Open race and Rachael Holmes who finished 2nd in the Women’s Open race. SLOW also managed another top 10 finish in the Women’s Open (Carys Morgan who was 10th), as well as top 10 finishes in Mens Super Vets 55+ class (Alan Leakey 4th), Womens Vets 40+ class (Diane Leakey 10th), and Junior class (Charles McMillan 7th).

All SLOW results:

  • Open Men (106)
    • 1 Graham Gristwood OD 28:31
    • 3 Edward Catmur SLOW/JOK 31:19
    • 19= Charlie Whetham SLOW 34:30
    • 22 Paul Nixon SLOW 34:46
    • 37 Daniel Findlay-Robinson SLOW 38:52
    • 40 Christopher Wroe SLOW/JOK 39:24
    • 53 Angus Lund SLOW/JOK 41:44
    • 58 James Cunnane SLOW/JOK 42:50
    • 81 Brian Roberts SLOW 53:32
    • 89 Tim Smith SLOW/JOK 58:06
  • Vet M40+ (84)
    • 1 Roger Thetford JOK 29:49
    • 18 Peter Haynes SLOW 35:56
    • 22 Andy Jones SLOW 36:46
    • 31 Malcolm Lyon SLOW 38:24
    • 35 Andy Robinson SLOW 39:45
    • 42 Gordon Parker SLOW 41:11
    • 74 Mervyn Rodrigues SLOW 52:04
    • 75 David Roach IMP002 SLOW 52:14
  • Super Vet M55+ (51)
    • 1 Axel Blomquist BAOC 27:16
    • 4 Alan Leakey SLOW 28:38
    • 22 Richard Catmur SLOW 34:34
    • 30 Chris Fry SLOW 39:14
  • Open Women (44)
    • 1 Sarah Rollins BAOC 32:13
    • 2 Rachael Holmes SLOW/JOK 35:29
    • 10 Carys Morgan SLOW 42:39
    • 23 Christine Jones SLOW/JOK 52:25
    • 24 Nicola Morris SLOW/JOK 52:53
  • Vet W40+ (56)
    • 1 Jenny Peel SYO 29:27
    • 10 Diane Leakey SLOW 34:20
    • 17= Christine Robinson SLOW 35:45
    • 19 Karen Jones SLOW 35:49
    • 25 Kathy Haynes SLOW 39:07
    • 43= Maggie Roach IMP002 SLOW 45:30
    • 43= Heather Walton SLOW/JOK 45:30
    • 53 Gail Parker SLOW 50:57
  • Red (7)
    • 1 Vanessa Johnen OUOC 30:38
    • 3 Virginia Catmur SLOW 36:47
  • Junior City Race (21)
    • 1 Peter Bray SN 20:30
    • 7 Charles McMillan SLOW 24:34
    • 16 Alexander Roach IMP002 SLOW 33:23

All results

Event Reports