Moray's McLuckie family shine at British Night Orienteering Championships as mum Moray, son Finlay and daughter Kate come home with three medals

The orienteering journey of Moray mum Morag McLuckie and her two children took them to the Lake District for a national night event.

And it proved to be a successful event for the Moravian Orienteers club trio as they returned with three medals.

Morag, her daughter Kate (17) and son Finlay (15) - both pupils at Elgin Academy - were the sole Moravian representatives at the British Night Orienteering Championships, having made the long journey south for the weekend.

There was an Urban Sprint Orienteering race around Keswick on the Saturday morning which acted as a warm-up event for the big race of the weekend.

This annual night champs event took place in the forested Western shores of Derwent water and saw almost 400 participants don their head torches and take on the challenge of navigating orienteering courses in the dark.

It was a stunning starlit evening, as the competitors went through the compulsory kit check (spare head torch, waterproof and whistle) before picking up their maps and heading off.

All three members of the McLuckie family were competing on the same course but against their own age groups.

Finlay had a very speedy run around his course, coming in with a clear two minute lead over his rival from the local West Cumbria Orienteering Club.

This result didn't change as the evening wore on and Finlay was crowned as thre British M16 night champion.

Kate also came in with a comfortable lead in the W18 class, however, fellow Scottish orienteer, Ruth Gooch from Deeside came in to take the gold medal by 45 seconds, with Kate taking a very impressive silver in her first national event as a W18 competitor - and on her 17th birthday.

Despite having been beaten by near 20 minutes by Finlay on her course, Morag's slow and steady approach, saw her also be awarded a silver medal in the W50 class - a big surprise to someone who finds night orienteering a serious challenge.

The next morning, there was a final orienteering event, in the UK Orienteering League, on Loughrigg Fell near Ambleside.

This proved to be very physically tough terrain, with Finlay running up a course, to compete in the longest, most demanding course against the top orienteers in the country. He was a very creditable 13th out of 100 competitors and 1st M16 on this course.

Morag was second W50 on her course and tenth out of 111 runners. Kate was fifth W18 on her course.

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