Graham races to top festival crown
Forth Valley Orienteers captured 24 medals, 10 of them gold, at the Jan Kjellstrom International Festival of Orienteering last weekend.
In the opening day sprint races at Brunel University Kris Jones was the highest-seeded athlete in the elite men’s class and won by 20 seconds.
Defending W16 champion Grace Molloy was not seeded, having made the transition to W18E, but an excellent 18.38 from the middle of the field saw her lead until the final athlete, Thames Valley’s Fiona Bunn, snatched the victory to leave Grace with silver.
Peter Molloy had the standout performance on the second day, with a gold medal in M16. He ran 25.34 to win by almost a minute from Devon’s Flurry Grierson.
Graham Gristwood and Kris Jones followed South London’s Ralph Street home in the elite mens’ class, Gristwood 30 seconds down on his international teammate with Jones a further minute back. FVO took three of the top five places in the class, with Chris Smithard filling out the top five.
Grace Molloy took her second silver medal (21.24), once again behind Fiona Bunn; Rachel Hendrie was second in W20S (27.16) while mum Fiona took a similar position in W55S (34.56) and the final FVO medal of the day went to Roger Goddard, who was third in M40L in 33.29. Former FVO runner Nick Barrable had the fastest time of the day.
On day three Graham Gristwood claimed the M21E crown with a 90-second victory margin on Ralph Street in the long-distance race at Holmbush, West Sussex. Gristwood sprinted home in 87.42 with teammates Kris Jones and Chris Smithard third and fifth respectively.
Gristwood was joined on the top step of the podium by two other FVO athletes. Peter Molloy was thrd in M16A but his excellent middle-distance run on Saturday was sufficient to hand him the title in his first year in the age class.
Fiona Hendrie started the W55S class in second place but won after a mispunch by overnight leader Debbie Charlton.
Lizzie Stansfield won the W16A long race in 77.40 but 19 seconds lost on the last control meant overall silver rather than gold. Grace Molloy cemented her place at the head of the W18E leaderboard with her third silver medal of the weekend.
Rachel Hendrie captured her second silver medal in W20S (53.36) to take the overall second place while Roger Goddard took overall bronze in M40L (76.12).
The final day featured the relay races and FVO Flyers produced a superlative display to retain the men’s elite trophy through Chris Smithard, Graham Gristwood and Kris Jones.
FVO had mixed success in the senior races. The women’s team of Cathy Tilbrook, Rona Molloy and Beccy Osborn took the silver medal behind West Cumbria.
The senior men’s team of Roger Goddard, Brad Connor and Ben Stansfield thought they had done the same but they were relegated after the technology failed to register a Goddard punch, though he had finished the leg in first place.