Conwy Urban Night orienteering event proved a success.

*Pictured above - Gwen Charlton who organised the Conwy Urban event.

Conwy Urban Night orienteering event proved a success.

Report by Don Hale

donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025

 

A brand-new Urban Night orienteering event held in and around the historic town of Conwy proved a great success last Thursday night with over sixty runners taking part in several individual or team categories.

The event, which was postponed from the previous week due to the freezing conditions, attracted first time orienteers and some more experienced athletes from a varied range of backgrounds including road, fell, trail and triathletes.

It also led to a family double with husband and wife Sam Drinkwater and Anna Drinkwater each winning their respective male and female individual categories.

Organiser Gwen Charlton promoted the event as a chance to explore the Medieval streets of Conwy, and the 60-minute plus challenge included locating and discovering key information from a number of checkpoints without using a map, and relying on just a pen and paper, with the whole exercise resembling an interesting sort of treasure hunt.

Just after the event, Gwen confirmed: “Last night went really well. A fab turn-out, largest numbers for the Eryri Urban Night events so far, 67 in total. The event included a mass start for all entrants to head off around the town, and to get to as many controls as possible to accumulate the highest score.”

The winning results included:  

*Individual women – 1st Anna Drinkwater 520 points; 2nd Gwen Charlton 500 pts; 3rd Sheryl Confre 490pts. 

*Individual men: 1st Sam Drinkwater 710 points; 2nd Aled Edwards 570pts; 3rd Sam Bennett 540pts. 

*Team results: 1st Robert Williams and Lisa 600 points; 2nd Gareth Jones, Simon Blain and Steve Owen 440pts; and in 3rd place was a tie between Tanya Beattie, Jon Hayward, Charlotte Rose Wilton Jones and her partner Romeo, and the team with Tom Adams, Marc James and Iolo James, with both teams recording 440 points. 

*The junior event plus one adult group also ended in a tie, with Michael Corrales and Lola Corrales, and the team with David and Ben Spofforth, both sharing 510 points.