Lighting a Fire
Local orienteers lit a fire in a major holiday event in a brand-new area, with three amongst the overall medals and several more taking stage wins at the Coasts & Island festival in Shetland.
Stirling-based club Masterplan Adventure specialises in missionary work, taking the sport to areas of the country which see little action, and following previous events in Kintyre and Harris, more than 300 participants lined up in Shetland for the first time the islands had seen orienteering.
As well as assisting in the event delivery, Masterplan chairman Chris Smithard was in excellent form on the terrain, and, following 3rd places on the first two days, he took the Long course win on days 3 and 4 to go into the final day sprint in Lerwick with a two minute deficit to EUOC's Alex Wetherill.
Chris managed a share of 2nd place, but it wasn't quite enough to hoist him into the lead, and he finished in overall silver medal place. Andy Llewellyn was consistent across the week, always in the top 10, and he was 5th overall.
Vicky Thornton had a close and dramatic victory on the Short course. She was once again well placed across the series, but surrendered time on day 4 when she stopped to assist an injured competitor. Without much sprint pedigree, her chances of sealing the deal on the final day looked remote in the face of some sprint specialists, but she did just enough on the Lerwick streets to win the title from ESOC's Helena Nolan by a single second.
Alison Smithard and Laura Hendrie missed the first day, so didn't feature in the general classification, but both showed their prowess, with Alison winning the Short course on days 3 and 4 and Laura taking the final day silver medal. Martin Dean had a comfortable lead in the men's standings, which featured two silvers and bronze on stage days, and was persuaded by this to take his chances in the sprint discipline where he rarely features, but a run-through close to the end saw him fail to score, and he ended the week empty-handed.
Hannah Buchanan-Smith was in action on the Novice course, at Orange level, and a good week included a 3rd and two 4th in the moorland races. She had a slight lead going into her first Sprint race, but was overcome at the end, finishing in 2nd place overall.