DALGUISE House Outdoor Centre, Dunkeld, was the venue for the East of Scotland Orienteering Championships – and a new mapped area was eagerly anticipated.
Small areas of beech woodland in autumn colours gave some nice running conditions, but unfortunately the bulk of the forest was very wet and slippery after the summer rains, and, being on a steep hillside, led to some challenging conditions.
Prizegiving was delayed because runners were taking longer than planned, but in the end there was good news for Roxburgh Reiver Lindsey Knox who retained her W50 title for the fourth consecutive year. Barry Veitch, the only other Reiver running, finished a creditable fourth on the M40 course, despite carrying an ankle injury.
The previous weekend had a clash of events, with some members taking part in the Original Mountain Marathon, a two-day orienteering-type event with an overnight camp. John Tullie and Kenny Short had a great result on the B course, taking third place overall and first in the veterans’ category by a huge margin. Their total time for the two days was just over 10 hours. The same weekend also saw the final event in this year’s Scottish Orienteering League and, although there were two individual winners on the day in the shape of Robin Sloan on M65 and Lindsey Knox on W50, the club only managed one podium place in the league with Lindsey taking second place overall.
Several members ran the Jedburgh Running Festival that day instead of orienteering, with a superb first place in the ladies’ 10k going to Kirstin Maxwell.
The next local event is at Gala Hill this Saturday. Parking is in the grounds of Gala Academy and registration is at 1pm. More details at www.roxburghreivers.org.uk