Orienteers were dominant in the Original Mountain Marathon at the weekend.

The A, B and C classes were all won by pairs of orienteers, but the winners in the elite class were brothers Ifor and Alun Powell, seasoned participants of the event’s previous incarnation the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon (KIMM). They finished 25 minutes ahead of second placed Tim Higginbottom and Chris Near.

Saturday got underway in difficult conditions with visibility rarely exceeding 20m and the wet murkiness lasted all day, but Sunday saw a change in the weather with brighter periods and much improved conditions. Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and his team-mate Jon Brooke put in a creditable performance, dropping out only at the next-to-last control on Sunday.

Biggest margin was in Class A, where winners Neil Northrop and Matthew Crane, from the British orienteering squad, finished 94 minutes ahead of the rest. Rumour had it they’d been carb-loading on beer on the Friday night before the race.

Graham Gristwood, 22, and Harold Wyber, 21, claimed the B-class title with Douglas Tullie and John Rocke winning the C class after starting in 4th place on the chasing start.

Alun Powell said after his victory: “We were not overly confident. There was a lot of route choice today [Sunday] and you never know. After a couple of hours our pace slowed in the tussocks and we worried we were losing it and were looking over our shoulders.”

Prizes were presented by the first ever winners of the KIMM, Ted Dance and Bob Astles, who also made presentations to those who had completed 20 or more KIMM’s over the years. You can read the full results here