Orienteers head to Culbin Forest

Rockness wasn’t the only show in town last weekend as hundreds of athletes headed north for a festival of a totally different kind – The Moray Mix Orienteering Event.

Culbin Forest is music to the ears of orienteers right across the UK, and the prospect of a major Scottish League race at the Hampden Park of Scottish Orienteering, plus an exciting urban-style race the day before, was enough to entice a 400+ crowd to spend their weekend in Moray.

As a curtain raiser to the big race, Lossiemouth was the backdrop for 5th race in the Nopesport UK Urban League. Urban orienteering is a fast-moving, fast-thinking navigation race. It’s all about spotting the best routes and hitting the checkpoints bang on, and Lossiemouth, with its maze of alleyways certainly gave runners plenty to think about. The race started off with a section on the RAF base before runners headed in to Coulardbank and the Boyd Anderson Drive area with its very intricate network of passages and cut-throughs. Then it was on into Oakenhead Forest before another loop back through the town took runners in to the finish.

The headline act at Saturday’s race proved to be Edinburgh student Ali McLeod who beat off the formidable challenge of another top athlete from the capital, Murray Strain. McLeod fairly hammered round the elite course in 51:22 to secure victory in the men’s open class by almost 2 minutes. The best local competitor was Northern Scot 10K champ, Forres-based Ben Livesey, who was 14th, 20 minutes off the pace, highlighting the incredible technique of the top orienteers that helps them navigate perfectly while running at close to 5-minute-mile pace. In the women’s open it was an Auld Reekie double when Claire Ward came in over a minute clear of fellow GB international Pippa Archer from NE England.

The best senior local performer was George Paterson. Running on home ground, the Moray Golf Club green keeper finished a fine 11th in the veteran men’s class with Keith postie Dave Weir just seconds behind in 13th. There was plenty to write home about in the junior race, where Moravian took the top 2 places, with Elgin’s Kenneth Maciver and Aberlour’s Andrew Edward claiming the top 2 places leaving Kerry Wood from Edinburgh in 3rd.

Sunday saw Culbin at is best. The sun shone all day and 424 competitors were one the start list – the biggest ever attendance at a Moravian event. International-class runners lined up alongside complete novices, each running in their own separate class, and there were around over 150 young competitors running the junior courses. The home club fielded 40 runners and produced three highly impressive performances. The first came from local man Jon Hollingdale who was 2nd fastest in the men’s elite, but Hollingdale was ineligible for the competition having assisted with producing the map. The second came from one of Moravian’s crop of talented juniors, Johnstone MacPherson-Stewart who beat all the Scottish Under-15 junior team while winning the M14 class by over a minute from Moravian club mate Andrew Barr. What a terrific 1-2 for these two talented Forres-based orienteers! Johnstone is at his best on this type of terrain and this impressive performance will not have gone unnoticed by the Scottish Squad selectors.

Meanwhile, in the younger junior class, Findhorn’s Duncan Hornsby finished second, despite thinking he had ruined his race due to two navigation errors. Hornsby’s lightning-fast pace helped him make up for the time loss as he split up two runners from the Oban area. One day soon everything will come together for the Kinloss Primary youngster, and he looks to have a promising future ahead of him in the sport.

There is more local orienteering coming up very soon, as the club teams up with Active Schools and Dallas Primary to hold a small family event in Dallas at 6pm this Friday (17th). The school will be laying on a barbecue and the event provides a great chance to try out the sport in a wonderful village setting. On Sunday, Moravian’s junior team travels to Fife for the annual Scottish Inter-Club Junior competition. A big team of 25 young runners head to Tentsmuir Forest where they will get the chance to compete against and mix with junior orienteers from right across Scotland.