Inverness’s Olympic hopeful Megan Keith was pointed in right direction by orienteering successes
Orienteering set Olympic hopeful Megan Keith on the right path for success, according to the Inverness club where she started out.
The Team GB athlete from the city is hoping for success in the 10,000 metres on Friday evening in Paris.
But she began collecting prizes as a youngster with Inverness Orienteering Club (INVOC), going on to claim European and World gold medals in the sport.
INVOC vice-president James Laird said it was easy to spot that she was one of the top runners in her age group, even as a youngster.
He said: “When she was a W16 – so at 14 or 15 years old – that’s when she really started getting competitive, and that’s when I think things started clicking into place and she was just accelerating in her speed.
“I remember this partly because she started overtaking me, when she started beating me! Three months later, and she was taking five minutes out of me – it happened very quickly.
“That was the year she went on and got the gold medal at the European youths at W16 in the sprint.”
Keith won gold in the sprint race at the European Youth Orienteering Championships in Bulgaria in 2018, winning by what Scottish Orienteering described as a massive 34 seconds from the nearest competitor. It was her first time competing at that level.
She followed that up in 2019 with a gold at the Junior World Orienteering Championships relay in Denmark, running alongside Fiona Bunn and Grace Molloy.
James said that Keith always had that extra bit of steel needed to pursue sport at the elite level.
“When she was selected to run for Britain for the European Youth Championships, she wasn’t in the Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad,” he said. “So, she didn’t have the training camps – she was doing all her own training, and I guess it showed there was a bit of a steel and a bit of determination in there, which obviously you need.”
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After dabbling in rowing, Keith settled on athletics, specialising in cross country and track. But James reckons she owes at least some of her success to the sport she started out in.
“We always see her as a product of orienteering,” he said. “It’s hard to disentangle, but orienteering is a sport where you are running by yourself and you go through a lot of highs and lows in that time-trial type scenario.
“To be successful you have to have a lot of independence, determination and drive.
“Megan ran the night series over multiple years and putting yourself out round courses in the middle of the night shows a high degree of independence and determination, and it builds those skills as well.
“It’s also dealing with the negative – when things go wrong, how do you react to that? How do you address that? That helps you with your training and in race situations as well.”
However, the main impression that the Keith left on James was her friendly approach at INVOC, where she would help look after the younger children and also assisted James when he set up junior coaching sessions, which continue to this day.
He added: “We’re all wishing her well, and we want her to just be happy with the run that she can deliver. We’re all very excited for her to be there – someone from Inverness, someone who has come through orienteering, who has come through the Harriers.
“So, we’re all very excited and setting aside Friday evening to watch it.”
