Scotland 2nd at SHIs in Northern Ireland

The Senior Home Internationals (SHIs) were held last weekend in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The team flew out on Friday afternoon and travelled over to the accommodation at The Share Centre next to Lough Erne near Enniskillen.

The Individual was first up on Saturday morning at Florencecourt and Gortalunghay, an area of open moorland with some deep pits and areas of peat bog and a forested section to finish. The weather came in and it was a wet and windy day out on the hill. Thankfully, we are Scots, and know how to deal with these conditions!

The best results from the Scottish team in each class came from Jess Tullie 1st W21E, Ali McLeod 2nd M21E, Alexander Chepelin 1st M20E and Emma Wilson 3rd on W20E. Special mention has to go to both Emma and Kathryn Barr (4th) performing excellently in W20 at their first SHI while still being W18s! The points for the SHI individual are based on the performance of the top 4 M/W21s and 2 M/W20s and the team had done enough to be dead level on points with England after the first day. To work out who got the trophy for the individual the next best result for both countries on each of the courses were looked at and added together, where England came out on top. They may have taken the individual but with points still officially at a tie it was all to play for in the relays.

The relays were held at Castle Saunderson on Sunday morning, just over the border in the Republic of Ireland. This year the Men’s and Women’s relays started at the same time which made for an exciting mass start in front of the ruined castle and off across the field into the woods. After the first leg Scotland were leading both relays, but after a bit of chopping and changing at the front it was England who came out on top with Scotland in 2nd in the Men’s (Duncan Coombs, Alexander Chepelin, Ali McLeod) and Women’s (Laura Robertson, Jenny Ricketts, Jess Tullie). It’s two teams to count for the relay and, with a 3rd in the women’s (Kirsten Strain, Emma Wilson, Rona Lindsay) and 4th in the men’s (Alex Carcas, James Tullie, Mark Nixon) for Scotland, overall England won the SHI by just two points! It was a great weekend of racing, thanks to Fermanagh Orienteers and all the others who made the events happen. Scotland will be back next year in England to do their best to win back that trophy!