OCTAVIAN Droobers’ Will Gardner will be hoping to impress on the international stage, after being selected to represent Great Britain at the first round of the Orienteering World Cup in June.
The opening round of the tournament takes part in Helsinki, Finland, and will be contested over four rounds – with Norway, Switzerland and China also hosting the competition.
He makes up the 11-man British squad, and will be racing in both the middle and long distance disciplines,. alongside the mixed sprint relay event.
Meanwhile, the club celebrated the great success of World Orienteering Day, holding events at Abbey Fields in Kenilworth, while running an introductory session to 40 school pupils at Compton Verney.
The club added 118 to the estimated 350,000 people worldwide that took part in the celebratory day.
Elsewhere at the Lakeland National Weekend, Max Straube-Roth (M10) came second on the 1.5km Yellow course in 22:57, whilst Matthew Elkington (M21) finished in fifth after a time of 44:13 on the 6km Black course at Stickle Pike.
Jill Emerson (w55) was seventh in the 3km Short Green event (42:45), Carolyn Marr (W70) was third on the 2.33km course (53:49) and Straube-Roth returned to finish runner-up in the 1.52km course (20:20).
At the King’s Lynn Urban, Nadine Wright (W21) was runner-up in the 6km Womens Open race (48:54), while Richard Gardner (M65) won the 4km Men Ultra Vet class in 31:28.
The club were well represented at Calke Abbey Park, where Mark Rookledge (M50) took on the Brown 9.6km, finishing tenth (64:33), while Chris McCartney (M50) finished seventh in the 7.5km Blue course (53:44).
Joanne Leigh (W50) meanwhile came fourth and Hilary May (W65) finished ninth (78:53) on the Light Green 3.6km course, while Diana Hailey (W75) came tenth on the 3.4km Orange course.
Octavian Droobers are next in action at Coombe Country Park next Wednesday (May 29) between 6pm and 7:30pm, and welcome newcomers and experienced orienteers to get involved.
For more information, visit www.octavian-droobers.org or phone the club directly at 01926 632189.
