The student orienteering community came together with great spirit on the weekend of 8-9 November for the Scottish Student Champs 2025 (run alongside the ESOA Champs), hosted by Edinburgh University Orienteering Club at the tricky Loch Katrine on Saturday and the lovely woods at Falls of Leny on Sunday.
In challenging conditions — as often is the case with orienteering in November — participants showed resilience and camaraderie. Whether you were a seasoned competitor or a newcomer experiencing your first student champs, it was fantastic to see such a wide range of students take on the challenge.
Competitors expressed that they got much enjoyment from the weekend, and were grateful for the overnight accommodation that was provided as this encouraged more social engagement between teams. The areas were physically demanding and technically difficult so proved a real challenge for everyone taking part.
Having received 4 glowing testaments to youngsters who have contributed a huge amount to the sport through their volunteering, we finally decided to award Young Orienteer of the Year to Finlay McLuckie of Moravian Orienteering Club (MOR). Here he is being presented with this very well deserved award at a Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) camp by Roger Goddard, the ScotJOS Lead Coach.
Having already published the full citation, it is sufficient to say that Finlay has impressed members of his club, the staff team and the sport as a whole with his contributions to coaching, welcoming newcomers, serving on the club committee and planning club events, all of which he has tackled with maturity and dedication. The icing on the cake was his contribution to the planning of Day 1 of the Scottish Six Days this year.
Every year at the SOA AGM, the President’s medal is awarded to an individual, group or club for their services to orienteering.
This year the President’s medal was awarded to Dave Kershaw who is a member of Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC).
Dave is standing down from the Scottish 6 Days Board after nearly 10 years as Chair and 3 years before that as Technical Director. The biennial 6 days is Scottish Orienteering’s blue riband event and the stewardship by Dave of this small board of directors has been critical to its success.
The 6 days is important to Scottish Orienteering in its own right but the board has taken on bigger challenges. In 2015 the 6 days was run in parallel with WOC where there were over 6000 competitors. In addition to being the Technical Director Dave also acted as technical coordinator.
As many of you will know the Scottish Inter Club Championship has taken many forms over the years from a one day event run along side the Scottish Individual Championships to the current format. The aim of the event is to help clubs foster a feeling of club comradery and contribution towards the success of a club within their membership. We want to improve its impact in 2026 and are looking for your help/ input to do so.
The Scottish Inter Club Championships which is held over twelve geographically distributed events over the course of the year allows clubs to compete against each other to see who can gain the most points from their club members performances at events. The Scottish Inter Club Championship consists of two sections, large and small clubs, based on the number of members a club has and these are then split into Senior and Junior sections so there are four awards at the end of the year with two Trophies on offer for the Senior sections and a variety of sweeter prizes for the Junior sections.
In 2025 there were events ranging from the Edinburgh University Orienteering Club (EUOC) Big Weekend in January through to the last event in November in Glasgow, The Tinto Twin Day Race hosted by St Andrew’s (Glasgow) Orienteering Club (STAG). Full details of all the events can be found on the Scottish Inter Club Championships Page.
Each year, as part of the Junior Inter Area Weekend, we hold a dedicated Junior Feedback Session, where our junior members have the opportunity to share their thoughts, ideas, and experiences. This session is an important part of the weekend and is part of why we encourage everyone to come together at the overnight accommodation.
Each year a Junior Inter Area event is held over one weekend, generally in October. The event consists of a relay event followed by an individual event with juniors from the three Scottish orienteering areas – East, North and West – coming together to compete as a team representing their area. The Saturday night offers the opportunity for juniors to all stay in a youth hostel or other accommodation, socialise, renew old acquaintances and meet new ones from outwith their own clubs/areas.
With each area taking turns to host the event, 2025 was the turn of the West area to organise and play host to Scottish juniors. And so the Scottish juniors descended on the Stirling area on the last weekend in October to see whose area would raise the Trophies and claim the sweet treats on offer as prizes!
After my late plea we have had a couple more nominations who deserve a mention.
Scarlett Kelly – FVO
Scarlett is one of our key volunteers, across a range of activities.
Event planning: Scarlett has planned three top level events for us in the last 12 months, at night, in a Sprint and at the Club Championships. Her attention to detail and preparation are second to none, as she planned, scoped, revised and replanned course legs at Kippendavie to ensure the best possible experience for more than 200 competitors. The event was also used as the 2024 Scottish Student Championship, and Scarlett won wide praise from her age-peers for the quality of her event.
Coaching: As a member of the GB junior team, Scarlett has a considerable personal training workload, but, having come out of our Junior Stars programme herself, she takes a strong view that it’s the duty of elite athletes to put something back into the sport. She’s one of our principal assistant coaches in the Orange training group, and regularly shadows and mentors other youngsters in training, having already taken her first step on the coaching ladder with a formal qualification.
Mapping: There are very few junior mappers in the UK, and, as far as I can see, no junior women who make maps. Scarlett, during a training run, spotted the potential of Tullibody village as a potential Sprint area and surveyed the area for mapping, producing work of a very high standard. She already has a second map in the pipeline.
Being a role-model: Scarlett is at all times a positive role model for other young orienteers, both in the level of her training and in her application to racing. She can be trusted to do her very best, regardless of the physicality of the terrain (the rougher and greener the better) or the weather conditions. Scarlett was involved in the medal presentations at the World Championships in 2024, and she reprised this role this weekend as she handed over medals at the Scottish Score Championship, in her role as the “invited VIP”.
Emily Atkinson – ELO
Emily has had run for Scotland and Great Britain. She finished first at the JEC sprint and top placed GBR relay team. She regularly helps at club events with Download, start and collecting controls. She helps newcomers at events, describing what to do and is always fully involved in all aspects of club events. She has planned several events for the club including the Scottish Urban League 2 in February 2025. Test ran the courses ahead of SOL 3 which was on a brand new area for orienteering. Sorry Emily we don’t have a photo of you.
Well done to everyone nominated for phenomenal contributions to the sport through out the year. The winner is being decided and the presentation will be made at the JIAs today.
Last month we announced we were excited to be able to offer two exciting opportunities to work with us as Scottish 6 Days Assistant Co-ordinator or as the coordinator for the Scottish Elite and Development Squad (SEDS).
We are calling on all those who may be interested to forward to us their CV and a covering letter by close of play 31st October.
Full details of the positions being offered can be found via the following links:-
Forth Valley Orienteers brought the Scottish Orienteering Championship season to a close in the shadow of the Falkirk Wheel with the Scottish Score Orienteering Championships. Unfortunately autumnal weather meant there was no sun to cast any shadows but they did get the delights of contrasting the feat of 21st century engineering against the roman history of the Antonine Wall while they got wet! They even got the option to use the Roughcastle Tunnel as a route choice which is 180m long and forms part of the canal tow path.
