Orienteering: Lakeland club enjoy 'momentous' 2011 (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Orienteering: Lakeland club enjoy 'momentous' 2011

8:48am Wednesday 4th January 2012 in Sport By Patrick O'Kane, Senior News/Sport Reporter

2011 was a momentous year for Lakeland Orienteering Club – and especially for its junior members, who over the course of the year cemented their position as England’s leading junior club.

In a very successful season for the club, no fewer than nine youngsters were selected to orienteer for their country while the club became national junior club and relay champions.

Junior co-ordinator Selwyn Wright said: “Success doesn’t come without hard work; we’re very lucky in LOC in having a number of very committed and talented coaches who organise regular training sessions for the youngsters and who go out into schools to put orienteering events on for kids.

“Our experience is that if you put things on for young people, they will respond.”

Talent Group and NavNight sessions in Ulverston and Kendal have paid dividends for the club with youngsters progressing to the highest levels throughout the last 12 months.

In February Natalie Beadle and Katie Mitchell were individual winners at the delayed 2010 Yvette Baker Trophy final in Worcestershire and Beadle was third behind clubmate Lois Jefferson (second) as the duo competed for England in North Germany in March as a successful start to the year continued.

Jefferson and Hannah Cleary-Hughes were second and fourth at the British Championships at U14 level in May, with Andrew Brockbank, James Allison and Adam Bartlett becoming British relay champions.

Five members were selected for the England team for the World Schools Championships and Bartlett collected a silver medal on the middle distance course, while he was joined on the podium by Allison, Patrick and Will Rigg and Angus Dobson as the team took overall bronze.

The success kept coming for the club and in July Carl Edmonds and Natalie Beadle ran for Great Britain at the European Youth Championships before Beadle and Cleary-Hughes won the Scottish Six Days event in Oban.

The club lifted the Peter Palmer Trophy in September and club members helped England win the Junior Home International Championships in Northern Ireland in October.

Brockbank, Will Rigg, Cleary-Hughes and Beadle became British Schools champions in November while Bartlett collected a Rising Star Award at the Cumbria Sports Awards.

To cap a superb 2011 and set their sights on glory in 2012 the club lifted the Yvette Baker Trophy.