Month: September 2024

After the success of the last in person Coach CPD day at Kinnoull Hill the resolution was that we definitely needed more opportunities to get together in the woods with some maps and try out new ideas.

As we roll into September, another academic year starts giving our university clubs the opportunity to recruit new faces into the sport. All four Scottish University Orienteering clubs (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling) have ‘give it a go’ activities planned for freshers week. 

An Extraordinary General Meeting of Scottish Orienteering is being held in person at North Inch Community Campus, Gowan Terrace, Perth PH1 5BF,  on Saturday 14th September 2024 at 10am.

The EGM Booklet is linked below containing details of the proposals. In terms of the EGM document you will note that certain amendments to the Articles of Association are proposed and you will also find linked below a copy of the Articles of Association with the proposed changes shown marked.

The European Orienteering Championships took place in the Vértes Hills in Hungary, in very hot conditions.

There were a number of Scots and Scottish based athletes in the team, with Grace Molloy (Forth Valley Orienteers) earning the best results. She was 28th in the middle distance, and 22nd in the long distance, and in a team also containing Jo Shepherd (Inverness Orienteering Club), came 9th in the relay.

Fiona Bunn (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club) backed up a good WUOC with solid 54th and 37th in the individual races, but unfortunately was injured for the relay. Peter Molloy (Forth Valley Orienteers) was 45th in the long, and part of the men’s relay team which finished 14th. Luke Fisher (Interlopers) made his team GB debut, coming 58th in the long distance, and Jo Shepherd was also 58th.

Grace had this to say – “I was excited to be back in the forest after focusing on sprint orienteering ahead of WOC. The races presented different challenges with technical steep slopes in the middle, physically tough courses with important route choices in the long, and a fast relay with no chance to recover from mistakes. I was pleased to deliver my most consistent set of World Cup races including my best senior long result.”

The World University Orienteering Championships took place in Bankso in Bulgaria this year.

The GB team was packed with Scots and Scottish based athletes, and the highlight was clearly the victory in the Mixed Sprint Relay for Rachel Brown (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club), Peter Molloy (Forth Valley Orienteers), Eddie Narbett (Interlopers), and Fiona Bunn (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club).

Fiona backed this up with 6th place in both sprint and relay, and anchored the women’s relay team with a fastest leg time to bring the team into 8th.

The men’s relay team of David Bunn (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club), Euan Tryner (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club), and Peter Molloy were 7th, with Euan running second quickest on leg 2.

Other notable results in the sprint race were Eddie Narbett13th, Rachel Brown 15th, Peter Molloy 17th and Freddie Carcas (Interlopers) 18th.

Fiona had this to say “World Unis was a great experience for me this year. It was a nice bridge between sprint and forest championships, had a great ratio of relays to individual races (2:2!) and some really interesting/unique forest terrain! I prepared by running a few days of the Bulgaria cup, and training in a few nearby areas. I was happy to have consistent individual performances, especially in the technical Middle distance, but the highlight was certainly winning a surprise gold in the Mixed Sprint relay. The team of Rachel, Peter and Eddie had storming runs to send me out in a medal position, about 30s down on the lead. I was so focused on the battle for silver/bronze that I did not realise that the Swedish last leg had gone walkabouts and we had in fact won until well after the finish! Thanks to Tom and Jon for their coaching during the week and the University of Edinburgh for their financial support and performance program coaching which supported many of the athletes on the team!”

Peter had this to say “I was absolutely delighted that our team won the WUOC sprint relay. In the build-up I was hopeful that we could challenge for a medal behind Switzerland and Sweden, since I knew that we had a strong team. However on the day we outperformed our expectations and were in the right place and the right time to capitalise on the mistakes of other teams. There’s no better feeling than winning a gold medal, and to do it with the team makes it all the more satisfying and memorable. I’m glad we could pick up where the victorious GB sprint relay team in 2016 WUOC left off!”

This weekend the Scottish Sprint Championships were hosted by Tayside Orienteers in MacRosty Park in Crieff. In a fun variation on the normal sprint style saw best use of the parkland and surrounding woods or streets with competitors taking part in two ultrasprints which were then combined to calculate the winning times.

It was perhaps not quite what James MacRosty thought the park would be used for when he donated part of it to the people of Crieff in 1908 but the format seemed to make people smile and even the weather approved!