The 2012 Railsport Games will take place in Stanley park, Blackpool, on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th June.

Games Entry Form.

David Evans a train driver with Virgin Trains won the Běchovice – Praha 10,031m road race held on Sunday 27th September and organised by the Czech Republic Railway.  In a four man team repesenting Railsport GB, David who lives in Wolverhampton was always up with the leading group, eventually pulling away to win in 33min 16sec.  Dariusz Starzynski of Poland finished 2nd in 34min 12sec, with Alex Palko of the Czech Republic 3rd in 34min 55sec. 

Peter Mallison another train driver with Virgin Trains finished 4th in 35min 50sec, while Steve Battle, a train driver with GB Freight finished 19th in a time of 39min 36sec and Ed Dunn of Networkrail Milton Keynes finished 21st in 40min 23sec.  The team was placed third behind Poland and Slovakia, with the Czech Republic 4th and Belgium 5th.

Pictured L-R are: Peter Mallison (Virgin Trains); Steve Battle (GB Freight);  Dave Evans (Virgin Trains);  Adrian Thiemicke (ATOS) Team manager; Front: Edward Dunn (Networkrail).

More picture in the photo gallery.

Race results.

Twelve nations competed at the 5th USIC Orienteering Championships held in Tisvildeleje, Denmark.  In the Individual Women’s competition, held over a course of 7km in the flat Danish coastal forest, Britain took two of the three podium positions.  Mhairi Mackenzie of Network Rail won the Silver medal, closely followed by the reigning champion Karen Poole, also of Network Rail, who won Bronze this time.  In the Veteran Women’s competition, held for the first time at these championships, Helen Errington narrowly missed a medal taking fourth place.  Meanwhile in the Men’s individual race over 12km Martin Ward (Interfleet Technology) was best placed Brit in 10th place, with Chris Poole in 21st.  In the Veteran Men’s race Simon Errington (Ansaldo) also achieved 10th place.

The following day saw the Relay competition held in the same forest, and was an exciting event not only because of the close racing but also because of the intense thunder storm that passed over the event and drenched the competitors!  Britain had a great start in both races, with Karen Poole returning in 1st place for the women, and Martin Ward returning in 2nd place for the men after the first leg.  After two legs the British women had extended their lead thanks to a solid run by Helen Errington, and Mhairi Mackenzie on third leg extended the lead even further so that the British women won with a comfortable 20 minute advantage over the Swiss team in second and Bulgarian team in third.  The Men’s race was much closer, with the positions changing continuously.  Britain eventually finished 6th out of 21 teams, which was a good result against some very strong runners from other nations.  Bulgaria, with a team containing members of their national orienteering squad, were the Men’s relay winners.

At the prize-giving and medal ceremony runners exchanged stories of their successes (and failures) in navigating quickly around the technically challenging Danish forests, and looked forward to the next USIC orienteering championships that will be held in the Czech Republic in 2015.

Martin Ward, Railsport GB Orienteering Team Manager.

Tony Rathmill of Network Rail won the Railsport National Angling Championship held at Makins Fishery, Wolvey, on Wednesday 17th August, for the second successive year.  Tony who fished on Lake 2 weighed in with 72lbs 08oz, Glen Castledine of Telent Technologies in Warwick, also on Lake 2 was second with 69lbs 12oz, while G. Hilley who fished Lake 4 finished third with 68lbs.

The team event was won by Central Trains Derby "B", with Bombardier Derby "A" second and Eurostar third.

Pictured: Tony Rathmill individual winner; Central Trains "B" team winners - David Lightowlers, Jim Clewes, Ian Winter and Lee Boden.

The National Angling Championship was sponsored by Angel Trains Limited.  Next year's Championship will be held on Wednesday 15th August 2012, again at Makins Fishery.

Individual Results ¦ Section Winners ¦ Team Results