LuxSUL 6 – the 2024 final!

 October 2nd        LuxOC organisation       

Many years ago, a Norwegian group called A-Ha had a great hit with a song “The Sun Always Shines on TV”. But there could soon be a cover version “The Sun Always Shines on LuxOC”! Once again, Luxembourg OC gathered, this time for the final run in the 2024 LuxSUL Summer Urban League series, at a venue bathed by the rays of the setting sun, shining over the rooftops of the mairie in Bertrange.

Club stalwart Jonas W had planned the courses a little longer than usual (well, it was the series final) to match the flatter terrain of Bertrange. Jonas apologises for the very large hole in one street – the “route barrée” for pedestrians seems only to have appeared after the maps had been sent for printing. He hoped it didn’t spoil the run too much – either for the ambitious souls who clambered round the hole, or the fainter of heart (but more law-abiding!) who backed up and took another route.

Overall, the Bertrange area has lots of small paths and detail, especially between the village centre and the railway that bounds the north side of the map. The courses made good use of this more intricate area, with the Deer course also routing further south with some longer controls for runners to stretch their legs.

Cedric G once again stretched his legs just that bit faster than anyone else on the longer Deer course – he was just a few seconds quicker than Ondra K, and less than a minute faster than Sasha R. On the Rabbit shorter course, the family K children were well clear of the field, with Inga A a full eight minutes behind Marianka K, and Orsi L two more minutes further back still. Which all meant that the “grown-up” ladies weren’t able to improve their “best four” scores for their League results.

The results for the evening are, as usual, posted on the Helga web results page – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=5577. And the final cumulative LuxSUL results are shown in the attached sheets. For the overall 2024 LuxSUL rankings, “best four from six” were counted, with times behind the winner at each run being totalled up as the way of scoring. 

The series final produced no big upsets in the overall rankings. On the Deer course, by winning on the night and taking his fourth win of the series, Cedric G improved his already unassailable lead. But Sasha R was not so far behind, less than six minutes in aggregate over the six runs. And, sliding past Vivien T with a useful run on the evening allowing him to discard an earlier slow one, in third place overall came former Club secretary Staffan V. On the Rabbit, the top three line-up was unchanged, with Inga A holding off Orsi L by four minutes overall, and Jana T a further four minutes back. Well done to all our “medallists”!

Overall, 88 Club members and guests took part in at least one of the LuxSUL runs. Thirteen recorded four or more scores, and so came at the top end of the rankings. And four Deer and one Rabbit made it to all six of this summer’s LuxSULs.

LuxSUL should be back next April – although nearer the time, the co-ordinator will be looking for volunteers to plan the courses, and perhaps to run the timing on some of the evenings.

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