Orienteer raises the 'Barr'

Forres Academy pupil Andrew Barr was one of two Moravian runners who travelled to York for the British Sprint-distance and Middle-distance championships.

Barr, who is still 14, was competing in his first major championship in the M16 (male under-17) category, and was up against virtually all the top Under-17 runners in the UK.

In orienteering, the short sprint-distance events are orienteering’s equivalent to running a 1500 meters track race while middle-distance is more akin to a 10K.

The former is all about going flat out over a less technical course while the latter is a very intense form of the traditional long-distance races where controls tend to be closer together requiring constant contact with the map while running at close to top speed. The Dyke youngster’s strength is normally in the longer distance endurance events and so it proved, with a superb 13th place in Sunday’s 5 Km race, well inside the national championship qualifying time.

Barr took the impressive scalp of top Scottish runner Callum White, and to put his result in full perspective he was over 6 minutes faster than Moravian’s club captain Eddie Harwood, who finished 5th in the M60 class which shared the same course.

The Dyke youngster is set to face an even stiffer challenge over the Easter weekend when he takes on an international field at the annual Jan Kjellstrom International tournament in Perthshire.