Orienteering Championships

Three Senior School students have helped to raise our national profile when it comes to orienteering.  

Matilda (Year 10), and Emily and Amy (Year 12) have put in exceptional performances to help secure the South West Junior Orienteering Squad their best-ever result. 

In the Junior Interregional Championship, which took place last weekend on Coatham Dunes, in Cleveland, near Middlesbrough, Matilda was running her first ever competition in the squad, Emily was part of the winning women's relay team and Amy took on the challenge of running up an age class, against the top 18 year olds. 

Individual results were that Matilda finished 17th, Emily 12th and Amy in 14th place.  

In the relays, Emily was part of the 1st place, gold-medal winning team, and the South West Squad finished 3rd overall. 

To put the girls’ achievements in perspective, they were up against the best junior squads from across Great Britain, which included a Scottish team with runners from their national cross-country squad!  

“I hope this will encourage even more girls to get involved in this fantastic sport”, said Redmaids' High Orienteering Coach and Junior School Teacher, Mr Hayward. 

“Orienteering is an exciting outdoor adventure sport that involves walking or running while navigating around a course, using a detailed map and sometimes a compass. 

“There’s an element of problem-solving to orienteering as the aim is to navigate in the correct order between a set of control points, deciding on the best route to complete the course. Fastest wins, but that doesn't mean the quickest runners always come out on top. It's a balancing act between pace across the ground and how quickly you can plan your route.

"I am delighted to see these girls set such a high standard for the keen orienteerers coming through the from both the Senior and Junior schools."