Champs juniors and amateurs find their way through the snow

THE BITING chill of a snowy January morning is hardly the stuff of tourist brochures, but for the large crowd of visitors to Findhorn on Saturday, there was something more in the air than just the snow flurries driven on by a biting wind off the sea. The attraction was the opening event in Moravian Orienteering Club’s 2013 season, and no fewer than 130 runners gathered on the Dunes to see who was magic with a map in their hands.

The numbers were boosted by an elite group comprising almost half the top 20 ranked male and female orienteers in the UK. As well at the top Brits, Moravian welcomed the 2011 female World Champion at sprint distance, Sweden’s Linnea Gustafsson and, on current form, the best two UK-based GB runners in Murray Strain and Tessa Hill. The pair has quite a reputation on the cross-country and hill-running circuits, with Strain and Hill the reigning male and female champions of the Snowdon International Mountain Race, while Strain was the 2012 Scottish Inter-District Cross Country Champion.

While the elites strutted their stuff as part on an intensive training weekend, Moravian’s own stars set their sights on how close they could come to the best there is. Andrew Barr of Forres Academy, who also represents Forres Harriers, managed to beat every single GB female, but the sheer class of the top men provided the Dyke youngster with an insight of how fast these guys can go, even in training. Alastair McLeod and Murray Strain were separated by just 4 seconds on the 4 Km long course either side of 22 minutes, but Barr came home a very commendable 6 minutes later, three minutes clear of the next-best Moravian runner who was Andy Stevens. The Forres veterinary surgeon inflicted a rare defeat on the 2012 League Champion George Paterson, albeit by only 5 seconds. Continuing where they left off last year, Kathryn Barr was the top junior girl and newcomer to the area Jane Halliday made it two out of two by winning the women’s category, despite Kathryn being two minutes faster.

The majority of the juniors contested the 2 Km short course where it was Elgin Academy’s Greg Anderson, also a member of Moray Road Runners, who came out on top, just over a minute clear of Bishopmill Primary’s Daniel Campbell. Forres Academy’s Nathan Evans tied with Burghead Primary’s Fraser Haig for 3rd. Among the girls it was Daniel’s sister Anna, who attends Elgin Academy, who took the tape first, closely followed by Burghead Primary’s Sarah Harbottle with Applegrove’s Lucy Evans third. In all there were 53 Under-17s taking part, which is an excellent turnout in such conditions and is extremely encouraging for the future of the sport in Moray.

The Saturday League also incorporates the Moray Schools League, and an exceptionally strong Forres Academy team signalled their intent by scoring 1 point off a ‘maximum’ with their top 4 counters taking four of the top 5 places on the schools long course. They were Andrew Barr, Duncan Hornsby, Kathryn Barr and George Cannard. Elgin Academy were runners up with Speyside in third. There is still hope for the other schools, as the Barrs are likely to miss several races due to national team commitments as the year progresses. Forres Academy won the Scottish Schools title a record-breaking four years in succession in the mid-1980s when the sport was enjoying a surge in popularity. Perhaps those halcyon days are not far off returning.

In the primary schools league, the perennial bridesmaids, Bishopmill, got off to an extremely strong start, establishing a lead of 27 points over Dyke, with last season’s champions Kinloss in third. Kinloss have lost several of their really strong orienteers to Forres Academy but seem to have a bottomless pit of enthusiastic runners prepared to represent their school and build their skills for the future. A team with promise looks to be Applegrove who unfortunately were one runner short of a full team. With a couple more runners they could well start to push Bishopmill really hard. Special mention should be made of two primary school youngsters. Mairi Weir (Aberlour) and Jennifer Spencer (Applegrove) both successfully completed the long course which is set at a technical and physical standard beyond what is normally expected for primary-aged children. Quite some achievement!