Kingdom of Fife Orienteers

Great fun at the Scottish Six Days for Fife members

Eight members from Kingdom of Fife Orienteers took part in the Scottish Six Days event in Lochaber at the start of August. This is a multi-day event run every two years and open to competitors of all ages. Rab Philp, Jim Moffatt, Jari Pekkarinen, Megan Pekkarinen, Heather Smithard, Les Smithard, Matthew Clark and Phil Smithard all took part. Phil’s participation means he has run at every one of these events since 1978.

Some pictures of the events were taken by Wendy Carlyle and Colin Matheson.

This year, because of Covid, the event was split into two 3-day events. KFO members got to run on Days 1, 2 and 5. Overall, 2000 people took part.

Day 1 was at Ardchattan overlooking Loch Awe. It was a steep climb to the start but the views back over Loch Awe to Oban were worthwhile. The terrain was rolling heather moorland. Megan Pekkarinen from KFO ran an impressive race.

Day 2 was partly across the Inverlochy golf course on the lower slopes of Ben Nevis, which meant a mixture of complicated forest and vast open fairways. A beautiful sunny day for attractive racing and great fun.

Day 5 was in new terrain for orienteering at Creag Dhubh. This was a tough hillside, in the rain, with high bracken and controls hidden behind boulders.  It was an “experience”, and everyone was relieved to get back to the car park at the end.

The next Six Days is in 2023 in Moray, which has some world-class orienteering locations. New club members have got time to set themselves the target, and make the preparations, to enter this event which will be at the start of August.

The overall results for our club members were as follows. Congratulations to all who took part.

Megan Pekkarinen W16A 19^th of 26

Matthew Clark M50S 10^th of 25

Jari Pekkarinen M55L 53^rd of 96

Les Smithard M65S 19^th of 32

Heather Smithard W70L 25^th of 31

Jim Moffat M70S 12^th of 21

Phil Smithard M70S 17^th of 21

Rab Philp M75L 3^rd of 39