Droobers’ Dee-light at six days of success

ANOTHER successful six-day biannual competition drew to a close last weekend with 3,000 competitors from 33 countries taking part, running through beautiful countryside close to the River Dee, in the Cairngorms in Scotland.

Courses crossed open moorland, forests, marshes, heather, rocks and rivers to give some great running and navigational challenges.

Nearly 50 Octavian Droobers club members participated and several gained top-ten placings at this international and world ranking event.

Juniors, competing in their first Scottish six-day event, found the courses fairly tough, but had some great runs.

Oliver Lunn (M16) was tenth on days one, two and six, while Tabitha Lunn (W14) was sixth on day three, seventh on day four, third on day five and second on day six to give her an overall position of fifth on the W14 Short course (calculated from her four best scores).

William Gardner had a great series of runs on the longest Elite M21 courses, finishing fourth, 19th, 11th, fourth, fifth and eighth, and his total time was 372.17mins, putting him in fifth place overall. Matthew Elkington was 11th overall and Harrison McCartney 14th overall.

Stephen Elkington was third overall in the M20 short class with a great first place on day three, adding to a third and two fourth places.

Alistair Landels was second overall on the M45L courses, with a first place on day three to add to two seconds and a third.

Julie Emmerson was sixth overall on the longest W21 Elite female course, taking a total of 401.05 mins after running on all six courses and Kirsten Strain was ninth in 415.15mins.

Sheila Carey was fourth overall on the W70 Long courses with a second, third, fourth and fifth place.

The next event organised by Octavian Droobers is at Elmdon Park, Solihull, next Wednesday. Start times are from 6pm–7.30pm. There is no need to pre book, all abilities and ages, from five to 85 years, are welcome to take part and help is given to all newcomers. For more details, go to www. octavian-droobers.org or phone 01926 632189.