Category: News

The European Orienteering Championships took place in the Vértes Hills in Hungary, in very hot conditions.

There were a number of Scots and Scottish based athletes in the team, with Grace Molloy (Forth Valley Orienteers) earning the best results. She was 28th in the middle distance, and 22nd in the long distance, and in a team also containing Jo Shepherd (Inverness Orienteering Club), came 9th in the relay.

Fiona Bunn (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club) backed up a good WUOC with solid 54th and 37th in the individual races, but unfortunately was injured for the relay. Peter Molloy (Forth Valley Orienteers) was 45th in the long, and part of the men’s relay team which finished 14th. Luke Fisher (Interlopers) made his team GB debut, coming 58th in the long distance, and Jo Shepherd was also 58th.

Grace had this to say – “I was excited to be back in the forest after focusing on sprint orienteering ahead of WOC. The races presented different challenges with technical steep slopes in the middle, physically tough courses with important route choices in the long, and a fast relay with no chance to recover from mistakes. I was pleased to deliver my most consistent set of World Cup races including my best senior long result.”

The World University Orienteering Championships took place in Bankso in Bulgaria this year.

The GB team was packed with Scots and Scottish based athletes, and the highlight was clearly the victory in the Mixed Sprint Relay for Rachel Brown (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club), Peter Molloy (Forth Valley Orienteers), Eddie Narbett (Interlopers), and Fiona Bunn (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club).

Fiona backed this up with 6th place in both sprint and relay, and anchored the women’s relay team with a fastest leg time to bring the team into 8th.

The men’s relay team of David Bunn (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club), Euan Tryner (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club), and Peter Molloy were 7th, with Euan running second quickest on leg 2.

Other notable results in the sprint race were Eddie Narbett13th, Rachel Brown 15th, Peter Molloy 17th and Freddie Carcas (Interlopers) 18th.

Fiona had this to say “World Unis was a great experience for me this year. It was a nice bridge between sprint and forest championships, had a great ratio of relays to individual races (2:2!) and some really interesting/unique forest terrain! I prepared by running a few days of the Bulgaria cup, and training in a few nearby areas. I was happy to have consistent individual performances, especially in the technical Middle distance, but the highlight was certainly winning a surprise gold in the Mixed Sprint relay. The team of Rachel, Peter and Eddie had storming runs to send me out in a medal position, about 30s down on the lead. I was so focused on the battle for silver/bronze that I did not realise that the Swedish last leg had gone walkabouts and we had in fact won until well after the finish! Thanks to Tom and Jon for their coaching during the week and the University of Edinburgh for their financial support and performance program coaching which supported many of the athletes on the team!”

Peter had this to say “I was absolutely delighted that our team won the WUOC sprint relay. In the build-up I was hopeful that we could challenge for a medal behind Switzerland and Sweden, since I knew that we had a strong team. However on the day we outperformed our expectations and were in the right place and the right time to capitalise on the mistakes of other teams. There’s no better feeling than winning a gold medal, and to do it with the team makes it all the more satisfying and memorable. I’m glad we could pick up where the victorious GB sprint relay team in 2016 WUOC left off!”

This weekend the Scottish Sprint Championships were hosted by Tayside Orienteers in MacRosty Park in Crieff. In a fun variation on the normal sprint style saw best use of the parkland and surrounding woods or streets with competitors taking part in two ultrasprints which were then combined to calculate the winning times.

It was perhaps not quite what James MacRosty thought the park would be used for when he donated part of it to the people of Crieff in 1908 but the format seemed to make people smile and even the weather approved!

With another Grade C controllers course taking place in the Aviemore Area on 15th September, we thought it would be useful to hear from one of our controllers. So thank-you Lindsey for all your work controlling, among other things, and writing us the following article.

The Scottish 6 Days is coming to Deeside in 2025..Make sure that you have the dates of the Scottish 6 Days in 2025 in your diary – 27th July to 1st August 2025.

This is a great opportunity to be involved in the planning, controlling or organising the event and build on your experience. There have been difficulties in securing access due to landowner and wildlife restrictions. Now that access has been secured it is vital that we get people into key roles as soon as possible.

The Scottish 6 Days is an incredibly important event in terms of funding and reputation for Scottish Orienteering. This event we have employed an Event Co-ordinator, Nic Crossley, who has an events background but we really need the support of the orienteering community to support her as she delivers the event. There are three types of roles that we need to fill as soon as possible – club day officials, controllers and position on the central organising team . The current allocation of days, areas and clubs is proposed as follows

Clubs have been asked to put forward names of those who would be interested in being involved. You may have been asked already but if you wish to be involved in a planning or organising or assistant controller role, please make sure that you have told your club of your interest as soon as possible. The assistant controller is normally recruited by one of the organising clubs for the day.

If you are interested in being a lead controlling, please remember that controllers can not come from one of the organising cubs on that date. Please let Nikki Howard know if you are interested in controlling nikki@scottish-orienteering.org.

As in some previous years the Central Organising Team will be made up of orienteers from across Scotland. There are a number of roles which remain to be filled including There is also a need for volunteers to act as Day Co-ordinator, Treasurer, Trader Co-ordinator, Event Centre Manager, Merchandising, Information, String course Co-ordinator, Equipment Co-ordinator and Social Co-ordinator. Please let Richard Oxlade know if you are interested or want further information president@scottish-orienteering.org

Responses would be appreciated as soon as possible.

As notified at the Annual General Meeting held on 24th June this year, we will be holding an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on 14th September 2024 at North Inch Community Campus, Perth at 10am.

The EGM Booklet will be published in the next few days with details of the resolutions and nominations for new Directors being brought forward.

It wasn’t only the fantastic organising team and volunteers doing Scotland proud at the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) this year, we had several home athletes for the crowds to cheer on as well.

Grace Molloy (Forth Valley Orienteers) was the star of the show, demonstrating that 2 winters out in the US on a track scholarship have moved her on to the next level physically. As audiences in Edinburgh and watching at home on TV could see, she was able to mix it with the best in the world, and came away with a fantastic 6th place in the individual Sprint race. She also ran a great first leg in the GB Sprint Relay team, changing over in 2nd place (the team went on to finish 7th), and made it to the Quarterfinals of the Knock Out Sprint. She had this to say about the experience – “It was special having a home WOC, especially one as close to home as Edinburgh. I was delighted to finish 6th in the Sprint after a fantastic course through the old town. The results in the other races were a bit disappointing but I was happy with my races and the whole week was an incredible experience. Thanks to everyone who made it happen!”

The Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) took place in Czechia in early July, and 5 of the 12 athletes in the Great Britain team were Scots or members of Scottish clubs.

Scottish Orienteering is holding a Club Networking Day (rebranded Club Conference) on Saturday 14^th September at the North Inch Community Campus, 10am – 4 pm.

Collectively everyone involved created something really special in terms of WOC 2024 and WOC Tour.  Many competitors in WOC Tour and the teams from all over the world taking part in WOC 2024 have given us really positive feedback, “Best Ever” being a common theme. Even those who didn’t visit but watched from afar commented on how brilliant the TV coverage was.

The work put in by everyone was outstanding and we can be really proud of what we achieved together. This was not just the work that took place during the two events but the immense amount of hard work for years beforehand.  And it could not have gone ahead without funding from EventScotland, The City of Edinburgh Council, British Orienteering Federation and of course SOA and Scottish 6 Days on behalf of Scottish Orienteering Members.  All that hard work turned a creative vision into a beautiful reality. 

Thanks to you all on behalf of the Boards of the Scottish Orienteering Association and the Scottish Orienteering 6 Day Event Company