Hazel’s world place in Denmark

Forth Valley Orienteers’ Hazel Dean confounded the pundits with an excellent seventh place in the sprint event at last week’s World Masters Orienteering Championship in Denmark.

Hazel went into the final ranked in 55th place and was largely expected to be nothing more than a stalking horse for better-ranked athletes.

However, she stunned the crowds, making a mockery of her ranking to find herself in gold medal position with only a handful of athletes still on the course, finishing in 14.13.

Some of the world’s best athletes came up short before the top six edged ahead late in the day to leave Hazel in seventh.

This was one of four top 20 finishes for local athletes on the opening day of the event as Martin Dean was ninth in M60 (15.22) and Ross McLennan 11th in M40 (16.19).

In a crazy M55 race, Gary Longhurst was just 72 seconds off the win, but had to settle for 20th place, in a time of 13.59.

Thirteen of the 19 FVO athletes in the field made it through to the A finals in their respective age classes with Jon Cross, Rona Molloy and Louise Longhurst all showing up well with personal best performances in the 50-plus age groups.

Masters athletes weren’t the only orienteers in international action this week as Grace Molloy made a second appearance in the Junior World Championships in Hungary.

Grace was steady around the 10km course for 37th position which placed her in the top quarter of the field.