The embers of September see Scotland race in the Lakes

The last weekend of September saw junior athletes and senior athletes from across the nations converging on the Lakes to take part in the Junior Inter Regional Championships (JIRCSs) and the Senior Home Internationals(SHIs). The JIRCs involves all 12 of the British Orienteering Federation associations bring their juniors to compete against each other and the SHIs involves the home nations (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) bringing their best senior athletes to challenge each other for dominance over a weekend of orienteering.

The weekend for both the JIRCs and the SHIs involves individual races on the Saturday, a relay event on the Sunday with a social event/ dinner for each competition on the Saturday night. This year both events were hosted by the North West Orienteering Association with the individual races taking place at in the deciduous woodlands of Torver Back/ Torver Low Common which lies near Coniston Water and the relays taking place in the coastal dunes of Haverigg Bent Hills with some lucky athletes taking home some Grasmere Gingerbread as well as the team trophies.

Looking to the JHIs first, 28 juniors from 10 Scottish clubs ( ECKO, ELO, ESOC, FVO, GRAMP, INT, INVOC, MAROC, MOR and TAY) within the age categories M/W14, 16 and 18 travelled to Lakes supported by the Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad Leaders and support volunteers.

The individual day was close with the Scottish juniors claiming victory in the M14, M18 and W18 age categories and saw Scotland taking the lead by a very slim margin of 4 points over their nearest rival Yorkshire/Humberside Orienteering Association (YHOA) to claim the Individual JIRCs Trophy.

The relays as ever caused some tense moments but saw the juniors race in to take first and second position in the M14/16/18 relay competition and second and third position in the W14/16/18 relay competition. Scotland therefore gained more points in the M14/16/18 relay competition but were tied for points in the W14/16/18 relay competition. When the scores for both days were combined however the Scottish Juniors claimed both the JIRCs Relay Trophy and the overall JIRCs title. Well done all involved and thank you to Roger Goddard, Jason Inman, Judith Bell (ScotJOS leaders) and Tara Black (INVOC) for supporting them all.

The SHIs involves the 3 from each gender running the M/W 20 age category and 6 from each gender running the M/W21 category. The Scottish team descended from various parts of the country into the Lakes with the hope of retaining the trophy after claiming it last year when it was held in Scotland.

On the individual day Scotland claimed 1st in the M20 age category, 2nd and 3rd in the M21 age category, 4th and 5th in the W20 age category and 3rd, 4th and 5yth in the W21 age category. This meant that Scotland and England tied for points in the Men’s individual but unfortunately England accrued 2 more points in the Women’s individual and so England went into the relay event with a 2 point advantage over Scotland with Wales lying in third position and Ireland in fourth but it was still all to play for.

In the Dunes on Sunday the Scottish team tried their best with the Men’s first relay team claiming the win ahead of England in second and third position and the women’s team’s coming in to claim third and fourth spots. Unfortunately this meant that England and Scotland tied for points in the Men’s relay and England won by one point in the Women’s relay leading to an England win overall by three points for the weekend.

Well done for a great effort by all who took the time to represent Scotland in the JIRCs and SHIs and thanks to North West Orienteering Association for pulling together such great events .