Forth Valley Orienteers secure seven medal haul at Jan Kjellstrom Relay

Forth Valley Orienteers were in imperious form at the Jan Kjellstrom Relay in Yorkshire, as they successfully defended the three titles in their possession on a seven medal day for the club.

The first medal was secured in double-quick time, as the U12s retained their title with an all-new team. Sophie Edward kept it tight to the front on the opener, coming back one minute off the lead (8.40), but Sean Truswell (8.56) broke the race open with the quickest second leg time, leaving Lachlan Carruthers (8.09) a front-race to the line.

Peter Molloy (32.20) was first home on the opening leg of the Elite Men's relay, as he handed over to Chris Smithard, who was in for his first appearance of the weekend. Octavian Droobers moved up from 5th at the changeover to take the lead, with Chris second on his leg (24.10).

Graham Gristwood had been moved from his regular middle leg berth to try and inject some end-game pace, and was left to try and cut 22 seconds out of Sprint champion Nathan Lawson. Attacking savagely, he chased down the lead and turned a 22 second gap into a 23 second winning margin (30.53) with the quickest time to bring the Trophy back into FVO hands for the fifth time in eight years.

Youngster Lachlan Carruthers takes off (Photo: Robert Lines)

Mark Nixon blew away the Senior Men's race from the outset, logging a six-minute (32.46) gap to hand over a strong lead to Will Hensman. SYO, who were expected to be a leading challenger, mispunched, and Will extended the lead by a further minute (28.57) leaving Andy Llewellyn to run it in, in 39.36.

There was an unexpected bonus, as the B team, of Jamie Goddard (40.43), Marcus Pinker (30.32) and Roger Goddard (40.52) got up within sight of the flag to snatch the bronze medal out of the grasp of Octavian Droobers.

The Elite Women (Alison Smithard (31.19), Clare Stansfield (28.56) and Grace Molloy (29.13)) took the bronze, for their first JK medal in ten years, while an all-female UltraVet team of Heather Fellbaum (26.54), Vicky Thornton (29.32) and Alison Cunningham (24.42) was in silver medal position, 22 seconds off the win.

The U18 Men took the 7th medal of the day, as, following good work from Alexander Hunt (25.07) and Lucas Baikie (13.49), Peter Owen put down the quickest closing leg time (23.47) to lift them from fourth to second.