Edinburgh Big Weekend 202327-29 January
There was a great turnout from ESOC for Edinburgh University Orienteering Club’s Big Weekend, which was eagerly anticipated and lived up to expectations.
The first event of the weekend was Fight With The Night, on Friday 27 January at Stewart’s Melville College & Dean Village. The event centre was in the college, and the start was in Stockbridge. The courses snaked along the Water of Leith, visiting controls in Bank Gardens on the way. On reaching the Dean Village, competitors had to pick up a map insert due to late changes - the navigation in the village itself was tricky, with small alleyways and steps. After that, the courses continued on the other side of the main map, returning to Stewart’s Melville and the finish via more confusing legs among the buildings. Artificial barriers enlivened things in various places on the courses. The Junior course was entirely within Stewart’s Melville grounds. The weather was fine, clear and cold.
ESOC results in the top half were:
Long (154 competitors) – Rachel Brown (running as EUOC) 26th, Sabine Oechsner 40th, Alison O’Neil 46th, Alistair Black 48th=, Walter Clark 54th, Terry Johnstone 58th
Short (158) – James Ball 6th, Calum Robertson & David Robertson 7th, Maja Robertson 12th, Heidi Ross 24th, Crawford Lindsay 26th, Lucie Hamplova 43rd, Sarah McAdam 44th, Enrada Cepele 53rd, Judy Bell 57th, Robert Simmers 61st, Hanne Robertson 62nd, Claire Black 63rd, Les Dalgleish 74th, Alice Herbison 79th
Junior (39) – Megan Brown 11th, Olly Simmers 12th
Further details about the Fight With The Night series are on the FWTN page of the EUOC website.
The Edinburgh City Race was on Saturday 28 January. The event centre was at Greenbank Parish Church, and the start was a short walk to the south, by Oxgangs Loan. The courses zig-zagged around Oxgangs, in complicated housing estates with many small pathways, steps and open areas. There was lots of route choice, with artificial barriers again adding to the challenge. The longer courses also visited the newer housing development in The Steils, while the traffic-free junior courses headed straight for Braidburn Valley Park. The finish was at the south end of the park. The weather was sunny.
ESOC results in the top half were:
M Open (83 competitors) – Donald Slater 33rd, Alistair Black 37th
W Open (62) – Sabine Oechsner 16th
M Vet (47) – Luigi Lerose 3rd, Walter Clark 15th, Terry Johnstone 17th
W Vet (41) – Elspeth Bleakley 15th
M Supervet (39) – Keith Brown 6th
W SuperVet (56) – Helena Nolan 3rd
M Ultravet (33) – Crawford Lindsay 7th, Ewart Scott 8th, Les Dalgleish 11th
W UltraVet (25) – Margaret Dalgleish 6th, Janice Nisbet 7th
M Hypervet (19) – Ian Pyrah 4th, Roger Scrutton 5th
W Hypervet (9) – Eleanor Pyrah 2nd, Katy Lessells 4th, Anne Stevenson 5th
W Young Junior (4) – Emma Daley 1st
This was the first event in the 2023 Scottish Orienteering Urban League. Further details, including a list of this year's events and a link to the latest league tables, are on the SOUL page of the Scottish Orienteering Association website.
On Sunday 29 January, the first South of Scotland Orienteering League (SoSOL) event of the year took place on the well-known terrain of Arthur’s Seat - open hillside (often steep) with plenty of rock and contour detail, gorse thickets and a good path network. The assembly area was on the grass near the Pollock roundabout, and there were 2 starts. The lower start was used by the longest courses (which had most climb) and the shortest courses (which had least climb), and the rest used the upper start. Most courses had more climb than usual, with some long route choice legs. The Brown and Blue courses were gaffled, because a mass start was available on these courses. The weather was sunny to begin with, clouding over later on, and it was very windy on the top of the hill, but fortunately it stayed dry.
ESOC results in the top half for their course were as follows:
Brown (81 competitors) – Alison O’Neil 19th, Donald Slater 20th
Blue (104) – Rachel Brown (running as EUOC) 10th, Luigi Lerose 16th, Keith Brown 22nd, Heidi Ross 23rd=, James Ball 39th
Green (110) – Fran Daley 20th, Hanne Robertson 24th, Martin Caldwell 36th, Megan Brown 38th, Helena Nolan 39th, Tom Uutela 45th, Calum Robertson 47th, Aki Uutela 49th
Short Green (41) – Margaret Dalgleish 5th, Ian Pyrah 11th, Judy Bell 13th, Mary Williams 17th, Ben Bate 18th, Lucie Hamplova 19th
Light Green (41) – Olly Simmers 9th, Tate Woodhouse 19th
Yellow (11) – Ianthe Bleakley 1st
This event was the first in the 2023 Scottish Inter-Club Championships. After this event, ESOC was lying 2nd in the Large Clubs division, and 3rd in Junior Large Clubs. For further details and the league tables after one event, see this news item on the Scottish Orienteering website.
Full results for the weekend’s events are available on the Edinburgh Big Weekend 2023 Results page. More details about the weekend are on the Big Weekend page of the EUOC website.
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