Moravian Orienteers take on three competitions in a week with Finlay McLuckie (16) enjoying great success and testing one of Britain’s top competitors
A 16-year-old schoolboy produced one of Moravian Orienteers best results of the sporting year.
The club attended three events in a week, starting with the final regional event of the year in a technical forest near Aboyne which produced some spectacular Moray results.
Finlay McLuckie produced his most impressive result to date, the 16-year-old coming second by only two minutes to one of Britain’s very best elite orienteers, and destroying the rest of the field who were all over 10 minutes behind him.
On the second course, Rob Parkinson belied his injuries to take fifth place with the ever-improving 16 year old Sophie Howard not far behind. Sophie’s sister Anna stepped up to the full-on technical courses and showed how much she has come on by achieving fifth place on course three.
The Ross sisters also performed really well in their respective junior courses with Julia taking a one-and-a-half minute victory on the orange course and Harriet coming a close second on the yellow.
Next up was the first leg of the Northern night cup in snow and -3 degree temperatures at Grantown.
McLuckie excelled again to win his event while his sister Kate was fourth, sandwiching two Inverness seniors that have been winning events for many years.
Moravian then held their local event at Altyre, and after a week of snow and ice the competitors were relieved to get their trail shoes back on and hit the ground running.
There were four courses on offer, with the yellow one seeing Harriet Ross and Grace Maxwell battle it out for first place, the latter winning by a close margin while Ben Henderson placed as second boy.
On the orange course, Moravian had another victory with Dillon Maxwell winning the course and Julia Ross being second girl.
The biggest triumph came on the hardest course of the day, light green, where paths are seen as a novelty.
Finlay McLuckie again came to the fore, claiming first place while Moravian trio Kate McLuckie, Scarlett Britain and Sophie Howard took the top three ladies' places.
