Scottish Middle Champs + SOL 2, 2024Hill of Alyth & Balfour, 21-22 April
A double weekend saw relieved Scottish orienteers returning to home terrain with such comments as "my O shoes are now clean of mud from the British" and "proper technical orienteering". At Saturday's Middle Championships event, ESOC runners achieved some great results including 2 Golds, 3 Silvers, and 4 Bronzes.
Scottish Middle Championships
Tayside hosted the Scottish Middle Championships on an area used only once before, the Hill of Alyth. An open hill covered in an intricate gorse maze, this suited the East of Scotland area connoisseur (think Whinny Hill, Blackford Hill, and similar areas) - and the mapping of said gorse by Pat Blashill of Stirling Surveys received wide praise.
ESOC runners achieved some great results including 2 Golds (Margaret, Ian), 3 Silvers (Rebecca, Kevin, Mary), and 4 Bronzes (Calum, Crawford, Janice, Eleanor). It was fabulous to see a clean sweep for ESOC on the Women's UltraVet podium! (course pictured)
Since the numbers of competitors was small, below we show ESOC results which fit any of the following criteria: in the top half, in the top 3, or Championship standard time (see also the full results here).
W14 (3) - Rebecca Daley 2nd
W16 (6) - Megan Brown 5th
M16 (3) - Calum Robertson 3rd
W Vet 40+ (25) - Sarah McAdam 9th
M SuperVet 55+ (30) - Keith Brown 4th, Ronald Nolan 14th
W SuperVet 55+ (22) - Helena Nolan 8th
M UltraVet 65+ (18) - Kevin Harding 2nd, Crawford Lindsay 3rd
W UltraVet 65+ (10) - Margaret Dalgleish 1st, Mary Williams 2nd, Janice Nisbet 3rd, Sally Lindsay 5th
M HyperVet 75+ (6) - Ian Pyrah 1st
W HyperVet 75+ (4) - Eleanor Pyrah 3rd
SOL 2 (Balfour)
MAROC hosted SOL 2 at Balfour in Deeside. After the recent muddy Midlands JK and Northern British, there was a tangible sense of relief from ESOC runners returning to Scottish forests, with such comments as:
"my O shoes are now clean of mud from the British" (Helen)
"proper orienteering" (Sally)
"Balfour was great. It's Deeside so my legs ache from clambering through heather and my shins are all bruised and scratched. But after the JK and BOC this was back to real technical orienteering" (Judy)
"Lovely Deeside forest - quite runnable, bilberries, deer trods quite useful." (Richard)
One unfortunate occurrence was the obscuring of the control feature by the start triangle for Number 1 on the Green course! (pictured)
ESOC results in the top half are shown below (see also the full results here).
Blue (35) - Calum Robertson 13th
Short Blue (51) - Richard Oxlade 2nd, Megan Brown 4th, Helena Nolan (20th), Finlay Ross (22nd)
Green (27) - Sally Lindsay 11th, Alison Harding 13th
Short Green (12) - Mary Williams 1st, Margaret Dalgleish 3rd, Judith Bell 6th
Further details about the 2024 Scottish Orienteering League, including a list of this year's events and a link to the latest league tables, are on the SOL page of the Scottish Orienteering Association website.
The Scottish Middle Champs event was the fourth in the 2024 Scottish Inter-Club Championships.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports