All of Scottish orienteering is behind you – former junior co-ordinator at Inverness club speaks of pride ahead of Megan Keith's run at the World Athletics Championships
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Megan Keith, by her own admission, had an unlikely route to the World Athletics Championships.
While some of those she will be lining up against this evening will have been focusing on athletics, or even a particular event within athletics, from a very early age, Keith started out in orienteering while also taking part in a number of other sports.
The now-21-year-old had plenty of success in orienteering at a young age too. As far back as Primary School, Keith was part of a team that won British medals.
She would go on to become part of Scottish and British squads – eventually taking gold in the Junior European Championships four years ago.
Former Inverness Orienteering Club junior co-ordinator Catherine Todd has fond memories of Keith's time there, saying that while she brought plenty of success what stood out most was her personality.
"The biggest thing I remember about Megan is that she always had an enormous smile on her face," Todd recalled.
"Orienteering is very much a family sport, so her family was involved with the club and she was involved from when she was quite little. Her Primary School orienteering team brought back one of the top British medals from the schools' orienteering competition, so even when she was young she was doing well.
"As a junior she was in the Scottish orienteering squad, and she ended up in the British squad and won some gold medals.
"She says that it was just because she was a fast runner, but that's not the only thing that matters. Running around a woods getting lost – if you're a good runner, sometimes you get more lost because you can go running past the controls.
"Megan has a cool head, which helps in orienteering because she makes good decisions at speed, and she has always been a team player as much as an individual.
"I think she has done sport more for fun, and has then found she's actually really good at it. I don't think she has ever been a medal-chaser."
Although it has been years since Keith competed in orienteering, her former club continue to follow the Inverness Harrier's progress.
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With such a tight-knit community in orienteering, they are not the only ones either – with Todd saying people from all over the country will be keeping a close eye on how Keith gets on in Hungary this morning.
"We are unbelievably proud of her," Todd said.
"We all followed her, and she has the most enormous fan base in Inverness itself and the surrounding areas.
"I don't know about the athletics community, but certainly the orienteering community is Scotland wide – so it's the whole of Scottish orienteering that's behind her, not just the Inverness club. What a superstar she is.
"There's absolutely no airs and graces – she's very humble. You feel that she always enjoys it.
"Very occasionally when you watch her running you see her hurting, but most of the time she's smiling because she's enjoying it.
"Any time you see her win things, she has always got her arms up and an enormous smile when she goes through the tape. We're just so proud of her."
Megan Keith races in heat one of the women's 5000m at the World Athletics Championships at 6.02pm UK-time
