Podium spots for Forres

IT WAS Forres to the fore when a large squad of 25 runners aged between 8 and 60 from Moravian Orienteers enjoyed a very successful trip down the A9 to Pitlochry on Sunday.

Faskally Forest was the venue for the second round of the 7-race Scottish Orienteering League series, and with almost 400 orienteers from the length and breadth of Scotland involved, the competition was as tough as they come.

Taking the plaudits for West Moray were top junior Andrew Barr (16) and M50 veteran Jon Hollingdale who took 3rd place on the Men’s Open (Brown) course and Veteran’s (Short Brown) respectively. Highly fancied on the Short Brown was Forres Harrier Dave Weir who featured in last week’s Gazette as one of the pre-race favourites. He didn’t disappoint with an excellent 4th.

Also flying the flag for Forres were two of Applegrove Primary Schools all-conquering cross country running squad. Lucy Evans finished 4th on the Yellow course closely followed by David Spencer just 21 seconds further back in 5th.

Every week seems to turn up a new hard luck story, and this one was no different. Emerging veteran female star, Auldearn’s Denise Main, had the bitterest of pills to swallow when she found herself disqualified for failing to swipe the 12th of the 21 controls on her course. This cost her overall 3rd place on her course where she would have been 1st female veteran by an incredible 4-minute margin. Every single top orienteer has a tale to tell of “how I learned about orienteering from that” and Denise has learned the hard way that this sport takes no prisoners. Her speed and technique have improved dramatically since taking up the sport with her young family a couple of years ago, and the Canadian-born endurance athlete has every prospect of a bright future in the Scottish Veterans ranks if she continues to progress the way she has so far.

Sharing Main’s frustration was the Scottish W50 League Leader Jane Halliday (Kintessack) who in her haste to hit the finish, failed to swipe the final control – one of the easiest ones on the course. Halliday was amongst the leaders until a big error at the penultimate control cost her 5 minutes. The resultant loss of concentration lead to the uncharacteristic slip at no 21, and just like club mate Nikki Howard found out to her cost 2 weeks ago, an orienteering race ain’t over til the fat lady sings.

The next chance to go orienteering locally is on Easter Sunday when Moravian team up with the Forestry Commission’s Roseisle Easter Eggstravaganza open day. Regional development Officer Mike Rodgers is masterminding a taster session from 1pm with 5 different courses covering every ability and fitness range. This Sunday, some of the club’s top juniors will be training with the Scottish Junior Squad who are up in Moray on a 2-day training camp. Local coaches will join the national coaching team to lay on 3 intensive sessions at Roseisle and Lossiemouth for 50 of the country’s rising stars in the sport. Several of the club’s most-promising juniors have been invited to train with the Squad to give them a taste for the opportunities that are available if they work hard at the sport over the remainder of the year.