WORLD SCHOOLS ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2013 ROWAN WHITE (S2) CALLUM WHITE (S4) STUART DINGWALL (S5)
Monday 15 April 2013 : ARRIVAL DAY We met the other Scottish Athletes and our coaches for the week at Prestwick Airport. From here we flew to Faro, in the very south-east of Portugal. It was a 3 hour flight. During the flight the pilot announced that the plane had the Scottish Schools Orienteering Teams on board and wished us luck in competing at the World Schools Championships. When we stepped off the plane we were greeted by palm trees and a blazing sunshine. Wow, back home it was still 0 C and snowing on and off! A bus took our teams to Monte Gordo. The hotel was huge. In fact it was so big that all 800 or so athletes and coaches from around the world were staying in it together.
We had to eat in two shifts. Dinner was a buffet with a large choice of food. Apart from familiar foods there were also salads with unknown purple bits in it, and meats that we did not recognize but were tasty. There were strange coloured traditional Portuguese puddings that we did not try. Most of us shared a room with 3 others. The room had a balcony and en-suite. The TV had BBC news on it. The hotel had an indoor and an outdoor pool and was located only about 150m from the beach. We were warned about the possible presence of a dangerous jelly-fish-like animal: the Portuguese Man-O- War. The view from our balcony: Straight ahead is Africa!
Tuesday 16 April : TRAINING DAY AND OPENING CEREMONY We got up really early to fit two model events into one morning. The model events are set up to sample an otherwise unfamiliar terrain. We walked to the first training area from our hotel. There were lots of police at the event; some patrolled the forest on motorbikes. We ran in a sand dune area which had lots of bushes and cacti (not seen on a Scottish Orienteering Map!). We saw lots of lizards and also a scorpion! Even early in the morning it was really hot. Then we took a bus to the second training area. Out of the window we saw cranes with their young ones in huge nests at the top of palm trees. It was not nice to run through the prickly Gorse Bushes that were growing everywhere! The temperature continued to rise to 30 C and it was good to get back to the shaded trees at the end of the run. The ground was covered in flowers, it was beautiful. After a late buffet lunch we had a little free time which many of us used to visit local shops to buy large bottles of ice-tea and other drinks. We returned for a team meeting in which we were issued information and race numbers for tomorrow s competition.
Before going down to dinner we dressed up in our kilted outfits. As soon as we had eaten we were bussed to Villa-Real-de-Santa-Antonio. We took part in a parade through the streets until we reached the stadium. Six people of each country continued the parade around the track before joining the others in the stands. The opening ceremony commenced with a large number of speeches and was followed by a show of dance and entertainment. The head of ISF (International Sports Federation) then pronounced the games open and a flag was hoisted. We got back to our hotel about 11pm. It was a late night.
Wednesday 17 April : MIDDLE DISTANCE RACE DAY The official part of today started early: We had to go to breakfast with our race numbers on as we were given food-slots according to our start times. After we had eaten we walked to the start of the middle distance races. We were kept in a quarantined area until our start times were called. In this area mobile phones etc are banned as there must be absolutely no communication with athletes that have finished or you risk being disqualified. On the start line our photo ID s were checked by officials. The race itself was an interesting race with many changes in direction. Some of the controls were placed on cacti!
With visibility reduced by lots of head-high prickly bushes, athletes (especially the shorter ones!) had to rely on accurate compass work to get them across the terrain. The run to the finish was on very loose beach sand really tough, especially in 35 C! Scotland Select Boys results from today were: Senior Boys Team (1996/1997) - 2 nd. Callum was 22th (7 th in boys born 1997) and Stuart was 60 th Junior Boys Team (1998/1999) - 4 th Rowan was 39 th (17 th in boys born in 1999) The whole Scotland team celebrated as one of our boys and 3 of our girls got podium places: Two bronze and two silver medals!
In the afternoon we went for a swim and we met with people from other countries.
Thursday 18 April : DAY OF CULTURAL EXCHANGES All Athletes were bussed to the historic village of Tavira. We walked through nice little streets, saw house walls covered in beautiful ceramic tiles, visited a special garden and sheltered from the hot sun under the shady parasols of the ice cream shops!
In the afternoon we were bussed back to Castro Marim for the festival of nations. This was held in a huge sports hall. Every nation set up a market stall to showcase their country. There were orienteering maps from many a place in the world on display and there were lots of local foods to taste! The 5kg shortbread we had carried from home was well received. Rowan really liked the meat that Spain had brought: they cut pieces of a huge leg of some kind of a beast to let people try. The Belgian chocolates were his next favourite. We did not try the Portuguese squid. Many athletes wore their national dress and each country performed for the other athletes. One of the Scotland coaches had brought her bagpipe and we danced a ceilidh. New Zealand showed off their Haka and China did Tai Chi.
Friday 19 April : LONG DISTANCE RACE DAY We had to be down for a 6.30 breakfast to get ready for the long distance races at Santa Rita. We were bussed up into the hills with views back down to the Mediterranean coast. The competition area was hilly (back to 5 meter contours!), open and completely covered in gorse and other such spiky bushes. As athletes started to arrive at the finish, looking completely shattered, we realised that it was going to be a tough day all round. Winning times ended up nearer 60 minutes rather than the organizers anticipated 45 minutes. An hour hard running up those hills and in that heat is no mean feat! We were glad that a water station was provided somewhere on the course. Callum had a steady technical run, but was unable to go any faster due to a chest infection and high pollen count both affecting his asthma. He got a 44 th = 17 th in boys born 1997. Rowan improved on his middle distance run and managed a 27 th = 7 th in boys born 1999. Stuart got a 60 th and is to be congratulated on his determination to complete.
Times separating the incoming runners were more widely spaced than at the middle distance races, but one of the Scottish girls still came away with a silver medal and others were placed high enough to ensure the following overall team results at this world championship: Select Teams Junior Girls 3 rd Senior Boys 4 th Junior Boys 6 th School Teams Junior Girls (Banchory Academy) 3 rd Junior Boys (Oban High) 7 th After our runs we took some shady shelter and cheered our mates in as they crossed the finish line. On Friday evening team lists were put up for the friendship races that would take place the next day. Athletes of all ages, gender and nationalities were mixed up into teams of 3. It was the team captain s responsibility to gather their team members together so that we would recognize each other the next day.
Saturday 20 April : FRIENDSHIP RACES & CLOSING CEREMONY We travelled to Castro Marim for the friendship races. We soon managed to identify our team mates and each person was given an identical map. We were given 30-60 minutes to chat with team members in order to prepare for the race. In this race everyone starts at the same time. All controls have to be visited by each team but not by each person. And so we had to work out who would visit which control, taking account of each team member s strengths in running speed and navigational ability. As an extra complication points A,B and C were spread out across the terrain and these had to be visited by the whole team at the same time. It is a real challenge to make sure that everyone in your team knows where they are going so all the points are reached, especially when your team does not speak a common language. There were almost 200 teams. Rowan s team came back 22, Callum s 38 th and Stuart s 80 th
We ran through the castle and across the salt marshes. After the races Tshirts were swapped and we came home with a T-shirt from China, a run top from Spain and another one from Israel to name a few.this traditional swapping is a nice way to make contact with people you may not normally just walk up to and start talking with.
The Closing ceremony was held in the evening, also at Castro Marim. There were endless speeches and some more performances. It was a shame that he party that followed lasted for less than an hour because the speeches had taken up so much time. Most people continued the party back at the hotel. No-one got much sleep as we had to be up again at 4am to get ready to go home. Sunday 21 April : GOING HOME By midday we arrived back at Prestwick Airport. A large group of parents waved the Scotland flag and cheered us in. By dinnertime we were home again. Plenty of stories to tell, but first... Sleep! (School again tomorrow!) THANK EVERYONE WHO HELPED US GET THERE. It has been an amazing experience to represent Scotland at the World Schools Orienteering Championships where we spend a week competing against some of the best orienteers of our age and making friends with athletes from all over the world. We could not have gone without the help of the many sponsors, cake bakers, raffle ticket buyers etc A special mention goes to Opa/Oma (our grandparents from Netherlands) for coming to cheer us on! They had quite a job to get past the police cordons at times but somehow Opa always managed. They took a lot of the photo s that illustrate this report. It was really special that they were there. Thank you to the school for letting us go to the Championships, to any coaches involved in our training and to our parents for their support. Callum and Rowan White.