The Northern Ireland Orienteering Association has awarded the Colin Henderson Perpetual Trophy to Teresa Finlay from Florencecourt.
The trophy is presented annually in recognition of the contribution made by an individual to the sport in Northern Ireland.
Teresa’s passion for orienteering began in the early 70s as a teacher in the east of the province.
Moving to Fermanagh in 1979, she married and started a family with Raymond Finlay, long time warden at Gortatole activity centre.
A keen outdoors person, Teresa excelled at road running and mountaineering. This combination of speed and navigation helped her to become successful in competitive orienteering.
In 1983, along with council officer Johnathon Warde and outdoor instructor Phil Chatterley, she was a founder of the Fermanagh Orienteers (Fermo).
The club has prospered and has hosted many major orienteering events in the county; Northern Ireland Championships, Irish Championships, Home Internationals, the British Relay Championships, and many local and regional competitions.
Teresa has been instrumental in the organisation of all these events and has continued to be an enthusiastic and conscientious member of the club committee every year since then.
She also served at regional level on the Northern Ireland Orienteering Association as a Fermo representative.
In addition to her input at an organisational level of the sport, Teresa has a long history of success at competition in Ireland, UK, Europe and further afield.
For over 20 years she has been a regular member of Irish Home International Teams at Senior and then Veteran Levels.
She has attended 10 World Masters (Veteran) championships including Canada, USA, and New Zealand.
She has been Irish and NI age-class champion many times and at every age-class from Women’s 35 to 70 and she continues to compete.
This month she and husband Raymond travelled to Portugal to compete in an international 5-day event where she placed seventh in her age category (W75).
Teresa is the fifth recipient of Colin Henderson Trophy, a beautifully carved purple heart wood globe. She joins a distinguished list of stalwarts of the sport since the early days of its introduction in NI.
If you want to try orienteering, the Fermanagh Orienteers are welcoming families and individuals interested in the sport to Castle Archdale Country Park on Sunday (March 230 at 11.30am.
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