Faro, Portugal
Report of the 2013 World Schools Orienteering Championships
Posted: 22nd April 2013
Congratulations to all athletes competing in the World Schools Orienteering Championships in Faro, Portugal.
Scotland had a successful week, bringing home 2 team medals and 5 individual medals.
Athletes had to battle soaring temperatures in tough terrain whilst competing for Scotland last week.
The first race was the middle, held in the forested sand dunes to the east of Monte Gordo. A fantastic setting for the event, with the start just a few hundred metres from the hotel and the finish on the beach!! Head high bushes led to difficult visibility, so you had to trust your compass work and keep confident to do well today. Temperatures climbed throughout the day, to reach the 30s by the time the later starters were out. One of our guides for the week was amused with our trouble with the heat, however she had never seen snow in her life! Scotland had many fantastic results today, to name a few:
Callum Hunter in the top 10 in the younger boys school category, less than a minute down on a podium finish.
Abigail Mason raced in to SILVER medal position in the younger girls school category.
In the M1 select class, Alexander Chepelin finished in BRONZE medal position, with Daniel Stansfield narrowly missing out on a podium by 2 seconds. A very tight race, where Alexander was winning half way round, until a 30 second mistake cost him the gold medal, with a similar story for Daniel who started really well, but a couple of mistakes in the middle of the course pushed him out of medal contention.
The Scottish girls dominated in the younger girls select category, with a SILVER medal for Emma Wilson and BRONZE for Clare Stansfield, with only 21 seconds separating them.
These results put the Scottish athletes in a good position for team results going in to the classic race, held 2 days later. We had sampled the terrain in the model event on the first day, but that wasn't to prepare us completely for what lay ahead. The team were bussed up into the hills, with views back down to the Meditteranean coast. The area was hilly (back to 5m contours!), open and completely covered in gorse and other such spiky bushes. As athletes started to trickle into the finish, looking completely shattered, we realised that it was going to be a tough day all round. Winning times ended up being about 50 to 60 minutes, and much bigger margins separating the runners in the results than in the middle. Scotland showed that they're not easily defeated with a few athletes again getting onto the podium:
Abigail Mason pulled out another brilliant performance by claiming her second SILVER of the competition in a time of 59 minutes and 14 seconds.
Alexander Chepelin was again the top Scot in the older boys select class, finishing in 6th place, narrowly beating Daniel Stansfield by 3 seconds to finish in 7th - fabulous result, but frustrating for him not to make it onto the podium by such a small margin again!
Emma Wilson and Clare Stansfield both had another great race finishing in 4th and 6th respectively.
The team results are calculated by adding together the top 3 times from both days in each class. There was BRONZE for the Banchory Academy girls and SILVER for the Select girls.
Scotland Results
Middle
M2 School
Callum Hunter 10th
Thomas Lines 17th
James Peden 40th
M2 Select
Samuel Galloway 12th
Ross McMurtrie 23rd
Ewan McMillan 26th
James Ackland 30th
Rowan White 39th
W2 School
Abigail Mason 2nd
Megan Ricketts 14th
Rosie Getliff 26th
Katie Skinner 33rd
Amy Hamilton mp
W2 Select
Emma Wilson 2nd
Clare Stansfield 3rd
Lindsay Robertson 31st
Roanne Lilley 37th
Emma Baird mp
M1 School
Alistair Walker 52nd
Alexander Fyfe 61st
M1 Select
Alexander Chepelin 2nd
Daniel Stansfield 7th
Callum White 22nd
Thomas Wilson 24th
Stuart Dingwall 60th
Classic
M2 School
James Peden 22nd
Callum Hunter 23rd
Thomas Lines 26th
M2 Select
Ewan McMillan 13th
Ross McMurtrie 20th
Samuel Galloway 26th
Rowan White 27th
James Ackland 47th
W2 School
Abigail Mason 2nd
Megan Ricketts 16th
Rosie Getliff 23rd
Katie Skinner mp
Amy Hamilton dnf
W2 Select
Emma Wilson 4th
Clare Stansfield 6th
Lindsay Robertson 12th
Emma Baird 16th
Roanne Lilley 32nd
M1 School
Alistair Walker 47th
Alexander Fyfe 68th
M1 Select
Alexander Chepelin 6th
Daniel Stansfield 7th
Thomas Wilson 34th
Callum White 44th
Stuart Dingwall 60th
Overall Team Results
M2 School, Oban High 7th
W2 School, Banchory Academy 3rd
M1 Select (nc) 4th
M2 Select 6th
W2 Select 2nd
At the World Schools, there is a strong tradition in emphasising fair play, world cultures and friendship. The Scotland team performed a ceilidh dance to the other nations and also held a stand promoting the traditions of Scotland (including tartan, shortbread, tablet, maps and more). At the end of the week all athletes (and coaches!) take part in a friendship relay. The organising committee put together roughly equal teams based on the results of the middle an long with a mix of countries in each team. Lindsay Robertson was on the podium for the athletes race and Lynn Young was in the winning coaches team!
For more information on the relay, cultural fayre and comments from the athletes themselves, see the next edition of SCORE!
