Kirstin leaving the first control.

The ESOC sprint was held last weekend at Kinneil Wood near Boness. The Maxwell family, who are regulars at this event, were the only Reivers to compete. There was almost no snow to be seen which was a pleasant change and the rained stayed off.

The event consists of a prologue where everyone  runs their course and this is followed by a second race which is a chasing start in which start times are base time plus the time taken to complete the prologue.

Kirstin had a strong clean run in the prologue to finish an excellent 9th on the course, a lot higher up than expected and over two minutes clear of the next female. Her dad Ian did not have such a good run losing atleast a minute on the second last control puting him back to 17th place overall and 10th veteran man. Karen had a good run to finish well up the field as 3rd junior girl l(38=) less than a minute behind fellow Scotjos memeber Rona Lindsay. Eileen had a steady run finishing a creditable 6th in the veteran womens class.

But that was only half the story, following exciting head to head racing Kirstin lost one place overall but took a further minute and a half out of Hazel Dean to comforatably finish 1st women in an excellent 10th overall. After catching 6 of his rivals early on, Ian let two of them past again after a  “too safe a route” to the last control, to finish 7th in class and 13th overall, one minute behind Kirstin. Karen had another great run,  strongly breaking away from the pack on the run in to climb 4 places to 34th overall and maintain 3rd in class. Eileen also ran well sprinting down the run in to finish a very respectable 6th in class.

All in all it was a fantastic day and great practice for the JOK chasing sprint which follows the same format this weekend.

Karen strongly finishing, leaving the pack behind.