MORAVIAN
JUNIOR/FAMILY UPDATE – NOV 08
This is just a very quick update for the benefit of parents of junior members to
let you know about some of the things that will be coming up in the next few
months that might be of interest to our younger orienteers.
MORAY SCHOOLS
FESTIVAL 2009
For those of us that get excited about such things, the early springtime will be
a very exciting time for junior orienteering in Moray. Gordonstoun School have just agreed to hold a Moray Schools
Festival on Friday 24th April. We’re organising it in conjunction
with Active Schools. As you probably know, we’ve been holding smaller schools
events in the Elgin, Forres and Lossiemouth areas, but this event will be a real
biggie. We don’t yet know how
many schools are taking part but we’re planning for 300 runners so this will
be far and away the biggest junior orienteering event ever held in Moray.
What’s more, the academies will be invited to take part, so those
juniors who have moved up since they first did orienteering at primary school
should also have the chance to take part in a schools event again.
In the lead up to this important competition, we’re making sure that we have
at least one event a month, and we’re even planning a normal club event at
Gordonstoun (hopefully on Sunday 22nd February) so as to give
everyone the chance to get used to the competition map.
There are plenty of other events in the pipeline, and here’s what’s
definitely planned so far:
Sunday
16th November.
Out next district event is at Forres Academy and uses Sanquhar woods and
Cluny Hill. We’re hoping that
maybe a few kids from the Academy might come along and try it, as well as some
of the Forres Harriers. There
should be large bunch of youngsters from neighbouring clubs attending.
Saturday
6th December.
We’re
holding another of our regular Saturday morning events with a junior focus.
This time it’s at 10.15 at Grant Park and we’ll hopefully get the use
of the cricket pavilion. Just like
at Culbin and Roseisle there’ll be a 2 to 2.5 Km course for beginners plus
something a bit longer and more challenging for the more capable youngsters.
This longer course will be planned to ‘sprint orienteering’ standards
so that the adults in the club can race on it as well. Sprint O is an up-and-coming discipline within the sport
where you tend to run a lot faster than at normal events because the
navigation’s a lot easier. However,
there are a lot of changes of direction and route choice options meaning that
even the top competitors are kept on their toes. There’s a lot of pressure to
save even a couple of seconds at each control at the elite end, but for the less
experienced there are longer path routes to the controls.
Sunday
1st February.
We’re planning a District event in Darnaway Forest (parking at
Conicavel). It’s another classic
Moravian area that has hosted the World Champs in the past.
Sunday
22nd February.
Local event at Gordonstoun (see above).
Saturday
21st March.
The first event of the Moray Mix weekend featuring a classic race for the UK’s
elite at Culbin, plus all the usual other courses for adults and juniors alike.
Some of the UK’s elite are saying that this will be the race of the
year! We’ll be making sure it’s
just as good for the juniors as well.
Sunday
22nd March.
We take our first venture into the fast-growing discipline of Urban
Orienteering. There will be 3
courses of varying length entirely using the streets of Forres.
There might have to be a lower age limit on this due to road safety
issues for younger orienteers, but this has still to be decided.
SCOTTISH
CHAMPIONSHIPS 23-24 MAY 2009
Unfortunately
the British Champs goes back to England next year, but we still have a fantastic
major event close by next spring. The
Scottish Championships is being held in Speyside on 23rd and 24th
May. This really is an event not to
be missed, and once again we will be entering as many relay teams as we can.
Our juniors are getting better and better all the time and if we can keep
getting the practice in by attending some of the lesser events we might have a
chance of doing really well. The
individual race day is on the Saturday with the relays on the Sunday so if
there’s any date that goes in your diary than this has to be it!
Even juniors aged from about 9 upwards who are only just starting out
should be able to get enough practice in between now and then to take part in
the championship individual competition and be considered for one of our relay
teams – as some of you will know, relays are the most exciting form of
orienteering going!
SCOTTISH 6 DAY EVENT
Most of our
newer families in the club won’t have heard of this.
Every 2 years there is a 6-day festival of orienteering in Scotland that
attracts between 3000 and 4000 runners, with loads coming over from Scandinavia
and Europe. The whole event has a
holiday atmosphere and this year the event’s being held in Perthshire and
Tayside. Even non-orienteering
members of families enjoy the sense of occasion at these massive events, and if
the whole family takes part it makes a brilliant week’s holiday.
Everyone can run in their own age class and there’s always time left in
the day to go off and do other holiday-type things.
The organisers also put on various social events so it’s well worth
thinking about. The club will have
a club HQ at each of the day’s competitions and we always meet up and compare
our experiences afterwards. The dates are 2-8 August 2009 and all the details
are on www.scottish6days.com/2009/
AND FINALLY
As we say to
all juniors who come along to the club, we want you to know that our events are
something you can come to whenever you fancy.
Most kids these days are in to all sorts of other sports, so we don’t
expect any sort of commitment if you just want to come and do orienteering now
and again. If your kids have been
the odd time or two in the past but haven’t been to an event for a while,
please don’t think you’re any less welcome.
We’re happy to see you even a couple of times a year, and we’re
trying to organise more events so hopefully there will be some events that
don’t clash with other stuff. Of
course, if your son/daughter shows some real talent we’re very keen to help
encourage and develop it and that’s another reason why we’re trying to offer
more events.
Please
pass the word around about the club. The
more people we get at our events the more competition there is and the more
enjoyable they are for everyone!
Mike
Rodgers
Moravian Junior Development
01309 641413