10 July 2006

Run Rachael Run

Orienteering is a running sport involving navigation with a map and compass. The traditional form involves cross-country running. The competition is a timed race in which individual participants use a special purpose map and a magnetic compass to navigate through diverse terrain and visit, in sequence, control points that are indicated on the map. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orienteering)

Rachael Elder is a research student in the Process Fluidics Group. Here she describes in her own words how she got into orienteering:

"I started orienteering when I was 8 years old. We used to walk round easy courses as a family. When I was 10 I was allowed to try on my own, but with my dad following 20m behind to make sure I didn’t get lost! My first achievement was winning the British Schools champs when I was 12 and I haven’t looked back since.

At 16 I was invited to join the British Junior Squad and I competed in three Junior World Championships, my best place being 13th in the Middle Distance race in Bulgaria in 1999. In 2001 I joined the Senior Squad and have competed in 4 sets of World Cup races including the European Championships this year. I’ve also raced 3 World Student Championships and have a Gold medal from the relay in 2002 and a Silver medal for the relay in 2004. This year I’m aiming for an individual medal as well as a relay medal.

This year I won the Bronze medal in both the sprint and long distance at the British Championships as well as anchoring the University women’s first team to Bronze place in the relay.

My main aims for 2006 are the World Championships which is in Denmark in August, followed a week later by the World Student Championships in Slovakia."

UPDATE
Rachael has now come back from Denmark and Slovakia with great results!

At the World Championship in Denmark she came 28th in both the long and middle distances in the women's race. There were 120 runners from 47 countries competing - and that was just the women!

At the Student World Championship she achieved 10th in the middle distance, 20th in the long distance and Gold in the relay. There were 80 female runners from 35 countries.

Rachael has been selected for the World Cup Final in France in October.