Kinloss beat closest rivals to the punch

THE EIGHTH annual Forres Schools Orienteering Festival was a great success according to the organisers and participants.

Active Schools and Moravian Orienteering Club run the event at Grant Park, inviting all of the primary schools in the Forres ASG to take part. Each school can enter up to 16 pupils for individual and team races.

“The festival is a great demonstration of how links we create between schools and local sports clubs get more children, more active, more of the time,” said Active Schools coordinator, Paul Rogan. “They give the kids the opportunity to try sports that they may not usually get a chance to experience.”

A short course (1.7Km) and a long course (2.2Km) were mapped out for the young orienteers, covering the park and Cluny Hill. There were individual races for boys and girls followed by team pursuits. Points were the sum of the finish positions for all 16 runners from each team. Disqualifications all scored points equivalent to equal last place.

“Even though the smaller schools can struggle to field a full team, their pupils still have the opportunity to win individual prizes,” said Paul. “A pupil from Logie Primary school managed it in Forres.”

Moray’s orienteering development officer, Mike Rodgers, pointed out that the school’s orienteering festival is now the longest established competition in the region.

“It was the first that Active Schools started and has spread through Moray,” he added. “The best kids from each competition will represent their schools in the Moray-wide festival in Gordonstoun next month.

“There were a small number of mispunches (wrong way taken) today, but it was the smallest percentage ever. That is testimony to the work of the PE staff in the schools - the kids have been taught well, especially at Kinloss.”

Kinloss Primary School won the boy’s short and long courses then the team event.

“The success achieved by Kinloss today is down to none of our runners making any mistakes,” said visiting PE specialist, Jenny Bichan. “We drew with Applegrove but we got the decision because nobody had a mispunch. It’s great to have won again. We have pupils from P5, P6 and P7 with a wide range of experience but they are all orienteers of a good standard who train hard. I’m delighted.”

Kinloss runner Sean Melloy (9) was proud to represent his school at the event. He won the short course for boys in under 13 minutes.

“This was my first time on an orienteering course,” he said. “I’m really pleased that I came first.”