Alexander lands his debut win in national competition

Local junior orienteers featured strongly on the medal tables as the inaugural Scottish Junior Cup concluded with races at Anagach, Grantown on Spey.

The competition was devised this year to replace the regular round of junior fixtures, which were lost earlier to Covid protocols, and saw each of the three Scottish area squads host a fixture on one of their top areas.

Alexander Hunt (pictured) turned in his best run of the year at Anagach, securing his debut win in a national level event to win the Orange class in 48.28 and move himself on to the overall Under 12 boys podium in second place. Matthew Inman overcame his recent viral infection to take third place (49.18).

Also on Orange, Eilidh Connor got her work done early, with a win and a second place in previous rounds, but was off the podium for the first time at Anagach (66.15) as cllubmate Esme Kelly pipped her for third place. 63.09).

Eilidh’s earlier successes guaranteed her theW12 title however.

James Hammond and MAROC’s Adam Barrie proved a class apart on the M16 Blue course this year, with a win and a second place apiece, and the overall title went right down to the wire. James led coming out of the final control, but then shipped 45 seconds on the run-in, to finish second in the race (46.26) and in silver medal position overall.

There were seven more FVO juniors on B class podiums at the end of the season,Tom Shearer won M14B, with Adrien Chapoy third, although both missed the final race. Meanwhile, in the U16 B class, their older brothers featured strongly, as James Shearer was second and Louis Chapoy was third.

Grace Polwart wonW14B with a string of consistent performances, Ben Polwart was second in M18B, in a series that went to the wire and Heidi Elise Eik Maxwell’s sole appearance at Anagach was still enough for a share of second in place inW18B.