Great success for Banchory Academy and Maroc athletes in Turkey at World Schools 2015
Banchory Academy World Schools Champions in M2 category
The team put up the best ever performance by a Scottish representation at the World Schools Championships, last week at Antalya in Turkey. MAROC members were at the forefront of that success.
The Scottish Schools Orienteering team headed for sunny Turkey last weekend to take part in the week long ISF World Schools Orienteering Championships. This is the largest Scotland team to attend the biennial event with 32 pupils travelling in total including 13 pupils from Banchory Academy in Aberdeenshire.
Pupils from as far as China and New Zealand were based at the Queens Park Resort, Tekirova and after the opening ceremony; the teams spent the first two days training in the unfamiliar Antalya terrain.
The Opening ceremony was a lively affair with local dancing to the fore. Jenny Ricketts carried the Scottish flag.
Kicking off with the Long Distance event on Monday it was Grace Molloy from Mary Erskine School who won the team’s first Gold Medal - W2 Select Category for Scotland, completing an amazing run of 4.3 km in a.time of 40.09 minutes, beating second placed Austrian Elena Zeiner by over 6 and a half minutes.
Next up Alex Carcas from George Heriot School came in an impressive second place for Silver in the M1 School category, beaten by only 12 seconds over the 5.580km course.
Third fastest time for the W2 School category was Eilidh Campbell from Banchory Academy and another top 10 result was achieved by Jake Chapman of Banchory Academy in 7th place, finishing just 3m33s after the winning time in the M2 School race.
Wednesday was the Middle Distance race at Beycik. Again a very technical and rocky area with varying visibility and steep climbs, however the Scots had obviously become accustomed to their surroundings and returned some amazing results.
In the M2 School Category, Banchory Academy pupils dominated with Gold for Jake Chapman, second place for Silver was John Getliff and in fourth place was Joe Wright. Jake’s unbeatable time of 23.47 made him Scotland’s first male Scottish World Schools Orienteering Champion.
The excitement continued as Grace Molloy became Scotland’s first double World School Orienteering Champion by again breezing into first place in a time of 27.03 over a distance of 2.6km. Eilidh Shearer, Oban High School was 5th and Jura McMillan, Lochgilphead High School was 6th in the W2 Scotland Select.
Another great run from Eilidh Campbell gave her the second fastest time of the W2 School Category. A special presentation was made to Eilidh for her two impressive performances. As a result of having an incomplete team due to illness she was non-competitive in both her races and hence not eligible for medals.
At the closing ceremony on Thursday (23 April) the M2 Banchory Academy boys stood on the podium once again to collect their Gold medals for winning the overall category. Coach Roger Coombs also received a Gold medal at the same time.
Other Scotland Team results were M2 Select 8th, W2 Select 2nd fastest team time but NC. In the older age group, W1 Select Scotland finished 4th, W1 School 8th and M1 Select 13th.
The teams would like to thank Blair Young - Head of Delegation and the team coaches Roger Coombs, Kirstin Maxwell and Lynn Young.
Every single member of the team did fantastically well and we are very proud of them!
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