All Good Things To Those Who Wait...
One of the longest dry spells in Scottish orienteering came to an end on Sunday, as FVO's Pascal Lardet had his first race win in 16 years in the South of Scotland League at Corstorphine Hill, Edinburgh.
Work commitments restrict Pascal to weekend competition, with larger fields, but everything came together as he topped the Short Green course in a time of 47.23 to end a barren streak of 132 races stretching back to 2009 and his only other victory. And in a final irony, he was able to overcome the effort of his wife, Jen Leonard, who was 2nd in 50.21. Post-race he commented “I think the difference today was that I was focused on my race, while Jen was admiring the zebras in the zoo and the view over Edinburgh.
These were two of the five FVO medals on the day, as Lewis Taylor topped the Brown course in a time of 55.19, in his first race in more than a year. Sean Truswell took an early class step, and sensationally headed the competitors on Light Green (52.16), while Oscar Baikie was 2nd (19.13) on White.
A Middle distance UK Orienteering League race at Plean was the supporting act to the British Night Championships, and FVO athletes were once again in good form. With packed courses in a field of more than 300 competitors, it was a serious ask to get onto the class podiums, but 12 local athletes managed to get amongst the medals.
Roger Goddard was 2nd on the Brown course, in 42.01, and while Scarlett Kelly was pushed out of the overall top three in the class by four seconds (43.54) she did have the consolation of being top woman, out of class, to boost her overall British ranking to 14th.
Lucas Baikie continued his dramatic rise to prominence, and was another athlete well out of class, as he was 3rd (42.41) on Blue, and Alison Cunningham was 2nd on Green (43.57) while Matthew Owen took the same finish on Light Green (30.45).
The club was able to flex its muscles on the junior courses, including a blockout on Orange, through Lachlan Carruthers (26.25), Sophie Edward (27.36) and Sean Truswell (28.06), and there were also 2-3 doubles on both Yellow and White, with Calum Bland (17.11) up on Anton Skeffington (21.27) on Yellow, and Oscar Baikie (19.18) getting in ahead of Elias Skeffington (19.32) on White.