James and Lizzie finish the course
Excellent performances in Urban League contest
Forth Valley Orienteers had three class winners among nine podium places at the BTO Solicitors Scottish Urban League fixture in West Lothian last weekend.
The double-header event, the first counter in this season’s Urban League after the Edinburgh City Race was voided, had a prologue stage followed by a chasing start.
Lizzie Stansfield was impressive in both legs, winning in 16.36 and 15.04, for the victory in the Junior Women’s class while James Hammond got the job done early, with a massive 8½ minute lead from the first stage (9.17) setting up an even quicker 7.41 chase to win the Young Junior Boys event in fine style.
Ben Stansfield and Paul Hammond went into the Veteran Men’s chase 10 seconds down on Interlopers’ Paul Caban, but with only one second splitting them from the chaser, and so it remained with, Ben coming home in 16.52 for the win and Paul one second behind in second place overall as Caban was overtaken in the finish chute.
Ru Flint was third in the Junior Men’s class with a decisive finish in the chase (18.09) cementing the spot as first leg leader Finlay Raynor (INVOC) was ruled out for a mispunch and Kirsty Flint and Rebecca Hammond swapped second and third places over the day, with Kirsty’s better showing on the prologue proving decisive, but only by three seconds over the piece.
Josie Stansfield won the prologue in the Veteran Women’s class in 23.45, but was run back into second place over the chase by Mary Ross (Interlopers), to finish in 18.46. And Fiona Hendrie went out hard in the SuperVet Women’s chase, turning her fifth place entry into a third place finish, in a time of 24.10.