Winter meet sees epic battle

MORE than 160 runners, ranging from GB internationals to five-year-old children with their families, turned out on Sunday morning at Moravian Orienteering Club’s big winter event near Rafford.

A number of local organisations joined forces to add a few welcome extra touches. Competitors travelled from all over Scotland, with the furthest-travelled coming from the Oban area.

Altyre Sawmill hosted the event, providing mains power, toilets, parking and an undercover registration area. They were supported by an enthusiastic team of youngsters from 1st Kinloss Scout Troop, who provided refreshments, raising more than £100 towards new camping equipment.

Competitors relaxing after their run were able to find out more about the Dava Way long-distance footpath which bisected the competition area, thanks to a display provided by the Dava Way Association.

The 9.1km Brown course went through some of the toughest orienteering terrain in Moray. There was an epic battle at the sharp end between two of the men who will potentially represent Team GB when the World Championships take place locally in 2015.

Hector Haines (Edinburgh), on the back of a hard winter season of training, just got the better of James Tullie, who hails from the Borders but now lives in Dulnain Bridge. For the local club it was encouraging to see junior international Andrew Barr (16) coming in third, just 10 minutes off the pace, which for a race at this distance against such class opposition was a superb effort.

On the shorter technical courses, there was a win for Jon Hollingdale (Blue, 7.7km), while on the 4.3km Green Course, Bishopmill Primary pupil Daniel Campbell (11) continued to show phenomenal prowess for his age at the hardest technical difficulty level with sixth place in a primarily adult field of 39 runners.

There was a mass of younger juniors on the three less technical courses (Orange, Yellow and White), which were all won by youngsters from the Dyke area. Kyle Cartmell has moved up recently to Orange standard, and was three minutes ahead of another extremely promising Moray junior, Hannah Kingham (9), from Fochabers, on the 3km course.

All seven courses were planned by Forres veterinary surgeon Andy Stevens, who obviously provided great inspiration for his two sons, Lewis (11), who won the Yellow course (2.6km) while Craig (9) came out on top in the White (1.9km).

Brand-new club member Kate Millar got herself noticed straight away by coming second, beating fellow Anderson’s Primary School pupil Scarlett Britain by just seven seconds.

All the results are on www.moravianorienteering.org, as well as details of the club’s next event on Saturday, when competitors will be looking to carve a straight route in the challenging Crooked Wood area.

The event is round two of the club’s popular Saturday League and Moray and Nairn Schools League, and is being hosted by Lhanbryde Primary School. Local pupils will be getting in some practice using the map of their school grounds with regional development officer Mike Rodgers and club member Rosie Pye in the lead-up.