Orienteering breakthrough for Moravian club teenager Kate McLuckie at Coast and Islands competition

The Coast and Islands Orienteering competition was a breakthrough for Moravian Orienteers youngster Kate McLuckie.

This event began only three years ago and has become world-renowned. It is designed to visit remote parts where there is little orienteering action and because of very limited parking is restricted to the first 200 entrants each year, all of whom are encouraged to travel to the individual events on foot or by bike.

A very mixed group of elite runners and recreational orienteers from all corners of the world enter early enough to get a place.

This year the competition took place on the Isle of Harris and Lewis with the first five days all being in reach of Tarbert and day six taking place at Lews Castle in Stornoway so that people could catch the ferry to get to the Scottish 6 Days Championships in Moray this week.

The weather was definitely better than the forecast with two sit-out-in-the-sun days and only one drizzly day which had the added interest of low cloud requiring accurate navigation.

Nine Moravian Orienteers were there with Kate McLuckie (16) producing six days of quality performances to come a very close second in the ladies to a 32-year-old Swede and third overall when including the men.

She won two days in the ladies event coming second by just five seconds to the overall male winner in a very intricate rocky sprint, and only beaten by an ex-elite world champion man in the most technical foggy race.

Kate said that the week with no errors has given her confidence as she knows she can navigate well and does not need to try to run too fast and consequently make errors.

Rob Parkinson, Eddie Harwood and Morag McLuckie all had more of a curate’s egg week with some very good runs and a few major errors at others.