Scottish Elite and Development Squad improving skills in Spain

The Scottish Elite and Development Squad (SEDS) is an initiative designed to help orienteers in their 20s and beyond to stay in the sport.

SEDS arranges for groups to take part in major events and training. In the middle of February, sixteen orienteers – paying their own way – travelled to Burgohondo, two hours west of Madrid, for a warm weather training camp.

The week in Spain ended with the four-day Maximus O Meeting (MOM) event.

The MOM is a huge and important event with a top field from across Europe. There were 85 in the Women’s Elite and 220 in the Men’s Elite, which had to be split in two to cope with the numbers.

For the first two days, and in the afternoons after the races at the MOM, the Team Scotland squad trained on maps prepared by the Maximus orienteering team in the spectacular terrain characterised by boulder fields, cliffs, bare rock and the scent of rosemary and rock rose. The training was essential to gain experience of the rough conditions and navigational challenges. Team Scotland met up with the Team GB squad for some of the training.

In the evenings, after a shared meal at the accommodation, the team used Livelox and previous maps to check their route choices with each other, spot how their international rivals were doing, and develop plans for races the next day. Discussion was also big on qualification events for the Edinburgh WOC week this summer.

The MOM itself was a long race near Hoya des Pinares, a middle at Navaluenga, and a sprint in the beautiful old village of Navarredondilla. The fourth day was a chasing start. The top athletes were started in order of their combined times for the first three days – first across the line wins the whole event. Three of Team Scotland qualified for the chasing start and Boyan Ivandjikov finished strongly to place him 12th overall in the Men’s Super Elite.

Departure from the event was a dash to the airport in full orienteering kit, with no time to change, to get the flight back to Edinburgh, and back to jobs and studying.

Comment from Boyan:

The camp was great, we had a really nice team atmosphere both during and outside of the races. Activities ranged from dips in the river next to our houses, sharing our backyard with a three generation goat family as well as detailed analysis of every training and race. I managed to have really good runs on the side of that probably due to the advantage of having run MOM twice already! Courses and maps were challenging technically with very quick underfoot which is the orienteering jackpot for me 🙂