Forres youngsters help Scotland to decisive victory
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THREE young people from Moray have helped Scotland continue their dominance of junior orienteering in Britain.
Daniel Campbell who attends Elgin Academy was selected for the Scottish Junior Squad this year and joined "veterans" Andrew and Kathryn Barr in the 24-strong team that travelled to the English West Midlands for the annual Junior Inter-Region Championships.
An individual race on Saturday was followed by the team relay on Sunday with four Scottish teams comprising one runner from each of the 14, 16 and 18 classes.
Scotland junior talent shone through on both days, with the trophy staying North of the Border for the fourth successive year. Not only did the dark blues win the overall competition, but
had they been competing against the rest of the UK combined they would still have won!
The individual race saw Daniel take 12th place in the M14 race while Andrew took 7th in the M18s. Kathryn, despite being eligible for the W16s was deemed good enough to run in the
W18s and fully justified the selectors’ confidence by taking 9th spot to help ensure an easy victory for Scotland over nearest challengers South West England.
The relays saw unprecedented domination by the Scottish boys. The four teams took the top four places! Andrew featured in the third-placed team while Daniel ran second leg in the fourth team. This is the first time that any one region has taken all four top places in the 26-year history of the competition.
The girls were almost as good, taking 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th with Kathryn running first leg in the fourth-placed team. It all resulted in a 42-point relay win over second placed North West
England, and an overall win for both events combined by a massive 92-point margin.
Orienteering in Moray and Highland is enjoying a boom in popularity following the World Championships, especially in schools. Five ASG schools festivals have been held over the past three weeks where over 650 P6/7 pupils have run in competitions while local secondary schools have used the same courses to hold races during curricular PE sessions.
The Moray Schools finals are due to be held at Gordonstoun next Thursday where every primary school has been invited to send its best four boys and four girls, while secondary schools
have their own separate race.
Highland schools champions, Fortrose Academy and Avoch Primary, will be attending as guests in order for Highland Region to gain experience of how schools orienteering is set up in
Moray.
Mike Rodgers, who is funded by SportScotland to develop orienteering across the region expressed his satisfaction about how the local schools programme is starting to reap results.
"We now have over 100 youngsters competing regularly at weekend events and the standard in our schools is unrecognizable from when we first started in 2006. A strong partnership
between Active Schools and Moravian Orienteering Club, with a regular programme of local events and coaching has been the key to these three young people making it to the top. I expect to see more talent emerging, but just as importantly we now have a set-up where young people can compete regularly at a local level, and gain other life skills by getting involved with event organization and designing courses."
