Medal glory for Moravian Orienteers at Scottish Night Championships
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Every year towards the end of winter, while the evenings are still dark, the Scottish Orienteering Association hold their Night Championships, writes Rob Parkinson.
This year seven Moravian Orienteers with their head torches headed over to Royal Deeside, having been given special permission to run on the hills behind Balmoral Castle.
Club members were joined by orienteers from all over Scotland, keen to test their night navigation skills.
The terrain was steep and rocky in places, and because of recent storms, some trees were down in the forest.
That gave the event planner Nick Hale and his colleagues from MAROC, the local orienteering club, some headaches but he still managed to produce some challenging courses.
The weather during the evening was cold but dry, so the orienteers could focus on finding control flags (with fluorescent tags to help) in the dense coniferous woods.
Finding your way around woods in the dark is quite a challenge, but the Balmoral woods have one particular helping feature - the Royal Cairns.
The area where competitors were running in included Princess Louise’s, Princess Helena’s and Prince Arthur’s cairns. These proved to be very helpful when deep in the forest at night, not quite sure where you are.
Moravian had a great achievement of picking up four medals at the event.
Finlay McLuckie won gold in the M16- (male under 16 years) category with Rob Parkinson also top of the podium in M65+ competition.
Keeping up the good family traditions, Finlay's older sister Kate won silver in the W-16 and mum Morag was second in the W50+ event.
The following day saw several more Moravians at Balmedie sand dunes for a regional event.
Finlay McLuckie won again on the second course beating a stream of classy adults with sister Kate running the same course and acquitting herself well.
Neil MacLean M75+ won the shortest technical course with Oonagh Grassie W65+ taking third place
Moravian Orienteers have their next Saturday league event at Altyre Estate just south of Forres.
The course is totally suited for beginners who can just turn up where they will be shown what to do for this adventure sport. Competitors should arrive between 10.30am and noon.
