The usual selection of Southdowners are heading to Wales this weekend for the OMM.  Hopefully rather less wet and windy than last year.  The usual competition on the Long Score between Kenny Leitch and Keith Masson and Darrell High and his partner, will all that swiss chocolate pay off?
Jonathan competing in his first one on Short Score partnered by Nick Barrable, with everything weighed to the nearest gram.  others that I have spotted, Mike Merrit. Jim Parker, Ingrid Franklin and probably many others but there are a lot of names to look through!!

Good luck all.

I can assure you that, despite access to a constant supply of free chocolate at work, Darrell remains as “mean & lean” as ever!

The results for most classes seem to be in now:
http://www.theomm.com/event and then click on “Map and Timings 2009”.

Some good news for SO, with Jonny & Nick leading on Short Score, Darrell & Nigel leading on Long Score, Kenny & Keith not too far behind in 4th and Steve Powell and Dave Howarth in 9th.  I haven’t found the others yet, but hopefully they’re all in and enjoying a relaxing (!) evening at midcamp.

Let’s hope the weather is kind to them and they all have good runs tomorrow.

Looking very good for some SO participants after the first day.
Darrell and Nigel are a very strong team and have a good lead on Long score - great to see Darrell in pole position!
As Ali mentioned, we have two other well placed teams near the top. Kenny and Keith often put their vast experience to the fore on the second day and perform some OMM magic - lets look for a SO 1,2. Kenny and Keith have frequently edged Darrell out of the lead in the past, but it may just be Darrells time this year!
Dave and Stephen are in a close packed group in the results and a top 10 place could be a strong possibility.

Jonny Crickmore and Nick Barrable have a commanding lead on the short score. JC’s very first mountain marathon, and obviously in good competitive company with Nick (recent veteran world sprint O champ) - an excellent intermediate result for these two.

Success at the OMM, with Jonathan winning the Short Score with partner Nick Barrable and at last, Darrell wins the Long Score, Kenny and Keith winning Day 2 to pull up into second .  Well done.  With the extra communications in place this year, we were able to see Jonathan download on day 1, get his prize and hear him at about 2.45 on podcast 1!

I also spotted that Laura Pearson and Alice Bedwell finished in 125th on the B course, and Laura’s fiance Tim Britton and his partner finished 10th on the same course.  Stephen Powell and Dave Howarth dropped down to 23rd on the Long Score overall.  I haven’t found anyone else as yet, but I think Jim Parker must have finished as there’s a photo of him having his kit checked on the Sleepmonsters site! 

I spoke to Darrell earlier - he was very, very happy!  He was also pleased to see Kenny and Keith move up to 2nd.  My only worry is now that Darrell has finally ticked off the victory, he may start planning something even more scary…

In a text from Jonathan he said that he was near darrell at the download and he was very excited!  Must have been tense waiting for Kenny and Keith to come in.

I was slightly worried at having a kit check, really did not want to be disqualified for failing it, but all was fine.

We were caught in a very heavy shower just as we finished day one, and was very pleased indeed to get the tent up and in the dry and some hot drinks inside me, as I was starting to get very cold and shivery.

A great event, I have emailed a link to Flickr to those I thought might be interested in seeing round green lumps with people in the distance, here it is again if anyone wants to see some pix:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29651652@N06/sets/72157622544505227/
I hope it works.
Nick & Jon passed us on Day 1, moving steadily at the same pace downhill, across rough ground, uphill, across even rougher ground, and were soon over the horizon......Great to see them get on the podium for the prizes. Obviously Jon will have to win Medium Score next year....
It was fairly obvious that the organisers had been through every single event that could possibly go wrong and planned in meticulous detail for everything anyone could think of. The camping field had several fire buckets in - with red flags on sticks and even glo-sticks on top so you could see them in the dark! - even though every tent would have had its own supply of water (for cooking and drinking) that could be used to dowse any fire. There were several radio control points out on the hills, and more marshalls than you could shake a stick at. For drop-outs during the day the map had pick-up points marked. My only caveat would be that a decision had plainly been made to make the maps bombproof against all weather and that made them very thick and tricky to fold - they were like the maps we had on the Highlander in April, very unwieldy. But that that’s not really a complaint. Also, a huge barn at overnight had been rented by the OMM - it had a big tent, and all sorts of things in it. Just in case. I thought the organisers and marshalls smothered themselves with glory. I dropped off several bottles of beer for the Yorkshire Scouts team, as a small thanks for their efforts last year. They certainly seemed to appreciate them....
It won’t rank very high in the annals of SO’s high achievers but I was 107th in Short Score - about halfway down the course, which for an old codger coming back from 18 months of injury I thought was not bad, especially as my partner twisted his ankle and I had to run with his rucksack for the last mile. Tomorrow, I’’m going back to work for a rest.

Richard Bean SO and partner Adam Stirk came a very creditable 17th in the A class.