Junior Inter Area Competition 2026 + SoSOL 6Sat 31st Oct Vogrie CP & Sun 1st Nov John Muir CP

Saturday Relays

The sun shone to warm a chilly morning at Vogrie Country Park for the relay part of the annual Junior Inter-Area competition (JIA), with East clubs as this year's hosts. Oleg (INT) and Fran (ESOC)  had put in a great effort to make the events and overnight stay a huge success. The route to the start followed the new Vogrie pumpkin trail, providing an excellent setting for this Halloween event. Some juniors had painted faces or additions to their usual orienteering attire to join in with the theme.

The juniors from each of the 3 areas (East, North & West) gathered near Vogrie House to collect their team number, and in some cases, to meet their fellow teammates. The level of anticipation rose as Oleg Chepelin demonstrated how the relay start and handover works, as for many juniors this was their first team event. Courses were run the in the order of Orange, Yellow then Light Green and used the path network, open forest and former golf course, with the longer courses crossing the Tyne Water to steep woodland on the other side.

The 1st leg runners from the girls' teams set off first and shortly afterwards the open category, which included boys and mixed teams. A spectator control allowed the next leg runners watch for their teammates, but allowed them plenty of time to collect their map and get to the pen before handover. They were then encouraged to complete the run in with their final leg runner, if they could keep up! There were lots of supporters and also a Halloween string course run by Judy where many of the younger runners did their warm up.

Once all the runners were back a prize giving ceremony took place for the inaugural Junior Volunteering awards, with a separate article posted here. It was then off to Broomlee Outdoor Centre in West Linton where the juniors (and some adults) were staying the night. The evening included a meal, discussion between SOA and the juniors on how they are catered for and represented within the sport, and of course plenty of fun, games and sweet treats on a spooky theme!

Relay results, with ESOC members highlighted:

Open (15)

• Tay Bridge Titans 5th - Seb, Hamish, Carl
• Ready Steady East 6th - Michael, Ember, Inis
• Beast From The East 10th - Eddie, Luke, Calum
• Forth Bridge Flyers 11th - Magnus, Hamish, William
• Salt ‘n’ Sauce Sprinters 13th - Rebecca, Ollie, Peter
• Beauty and the East 14th - Lucy, Hannah, Ben

Girls (7)

• East Side Boo Crew 4th - Ianthe, Imogen, Lucy
• Easter err Bunnies 6th - Jessica, Kirsten, Emma

Full relay results can be found here, with livelox.

Sunday Individual

Another sunny day dawned, but with earlier starts and a coastal location at John Muir Country Park, the air had a chillier feel. The forested part of the park had suffered badly with windblow during Storm Arwen 5 years ago, but it is once again open to the public. This therefore provided a complete contrast to the dunes area of the map, resulting in some interesting courses.

In these individual races, only the top 2 runners in each age category in M and W count towards the final result. The EAST team had changed slightly from the previous day, but this does not matter, as every junior is welcome to take part when they can. It rounded off a great weekend of junior fun. Next year it will be NORTH's turn to host this autumn event.

ESOC junior results:

• Yellow (28) - Hamish 5th, Kirsten 9th, Hamish 13th, Hannah 14th, Luke 17th, Angus 20th, Ted & Ben 21st
• Orange (21) - Eddie 4th, Ianthe 6th, Michael 10th, Seb 14th
• Light Green (16) - Ben 13th
• Brown (4) - Calum 2nd

The individual results are combined with the SoSOL results here, with routegadget also available. In the junior individual competition, EAST came 2nd by only 1 point! The overall JIA results are here. Although EAST came last overall, we have a very young team and so are looking forward to future competitions.