Meritorious Performances
Since joining Shaftesbury Barnet Hariers in June, RICHARD HORTON U20 has run a PB 8:27.67 for 3000m in the National Junior League at Allianz Park, and 14:41.74 for 5000m in the final British Athletic League match in Liverpool. Being an accomplished cyclist, Richard’s main target for 2012 was the World Duathlon Championships in the historic French city of Nancy on 22 September.
Richard duly became World U20 Junior Champion, the sprint distance race was made up of a two and a half kilometre run, twenty kilometre bike ride, two and a half kilometre run, Richard was involved in an exciting sprint finish, eventually holding off Matthias Steinwandter of Italy to secure a momentous win. His winning time was 49 minutes 42 seconds, with Matthias a further 2 seconds back.
Another of Shaftesbury's alternative athletes is ORLANDO EDWARDS, who shies away from the Track in search of Mountains. Summer is the Mountain Running season. [1]
On 9 September he competed in the 20th running of the JUNGFRAU-MARATHON in Switzerland which incorporated the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfrau_Marathon)
The race is held on a spectacular course which must rank amongst the world's most beautiful courses. The course starts in Interlaken and goes into the Jungfrau Region via Lauterbrunnen, Wengen up to the Kleine Scheidegg with its famous mountains Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. The first 25km or so are relatively flat and mostly on the road, with only 200m height gained to this point. At 25km the climb, and the real race begins. But it is generally agreed, that the winner of this race needs to possess basic speed, endurance and climbing ability. The course record (2hours 49 mins 01 secs) is held by Jono Wyatt, who represented New Zealand twice at the Olympics. [2]
Orlando covered the 26.2miles, which included a total height gain of 1,823m (5950 feet), in a respectable time of 3:13.49 and finished in 16th place, ahead of all of the England team. He was 3rd Briton on the day. The winner was Markus Hohenwarter of Austria who ran 2:59.42. [3]
More recently Orlando was selected to run for England on 22 September in the Home International Uphill-only Fell Race which was held in Melmerby, near Penrith, Cumbria. Orlando sometimes likes to make excuses for his performances, and after this race he was heard to moan that although it was listed as an uphill-only race, the total height gain in the race was only 539m and much of the course was along flat or undulating terrain.
This was a difficult race coming 2 weeks after the Jungfrau Marathon, it was an uphill only race (539m), but unlike any other race he had done before, as the terrain was much tougher compared to a European style uphill event. The race consisted of a one mile road section, followed by a hard climb on rough grass and bog. The second half of the race was along the ridge along gently undulating, boggy terrain, essentially fast running. Clear weather meant that the views from the ridge were spectacular.
England picked up the team title win, closing with five runners in the first eight. With Chris Smith 3rd and Joe Morwood 5th backed up by Orlando Edwards 6th, Tom Cornthwaite 7th and Nick Swinburn in 8th. Orlando’s time for the 10k distance was 45.42.
The Home International was the final race in the UKA Mountain Running Challenge for 2012, and his run secured him 3rd place in the series.
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