Forth Valley Orienteers' stars win half of the medals on offer at Scottish Sprint Championships

Forth Valley Orienteers turned on the style at the Scottish Sprint Championships in Crieff, as their athletes won half the titles up for grabs on a ten-champion, 23 medal day.

Ethan Baikie made his championship debut, and is a national champ at the first time of asking, lifting the M10 title in a time of 39.31 for his two runs. Lucy Finch retained the W10 crown she won last year (41.54) consigning Emma Cheyne (43.03), who had won the opening race, to second place.

There was an FVO one-two in W12, with Hannah Inman the champion for third straight year (18.20) and Sophie Edward securing silver. Lachlan Carruthers was also on the podium with bronze in his first championship race (29.14).

M14 was an FVO show, as Fraser Cheyne took his third medal of a brilliant debut season, gold in 24.10. with James Edward (31.01) and Lucas Baikie (32.14) also in podium placings. Bronze too in M16, with Alexander Hunt (24.46) just five seconds off silver, and Hanna Brindley topped W16 (26.38) for her first title in five years.

There was a Hensman double in the older girl's classes, Katie winning W18 in 33.59 for her first-ever national title, and Lucy scooping the prize in W20 (39.52) to go one better than last year. Laura Hendrie is another who gets a reward for years of persistence, the women’s open silver (30.34).

In the men’s vet class, Will Hensman won his fifth straight title, in 20.43, to ensure he finishes an injury-racked season with a medal, and Mark Johnston was third (20.55) for his first medal since 2019.

There was an early shock in women's vet, as defending champion Rachel Kirkland crashed out, but the podium was still all FVO. Ultra-runner Helena Carey overcame the handicap of the race being much shorter than her usual fare to take a dramatic win in 24.59, with Beccy Osborn (26.45) and Natasha Conway (26.56) also on the podium.

There's another FVO one-two, this time in women’s supervet, with Alison Cunningham defending her title in 18.36, and Cathy Tilbrook taking silver in 20.27.

The men’s ultravet class saw Gary Longhurst with a strong second race which took him into the silver medal berth (18.50) ahead of John Campbell (21.30) who took bronze, and the final medal of the day went to Liz Godfree in the women’s hypervet field with a time of 22.32.