Alright at the Nights
The 2022 British Night Championships, on a snow-covered Ilkley Moor, Yorkshire, saw four FVO athletes crowned as British champions, on an excellent night overall for the club.
Graham Gristwood now has a quite incredible eight British Night titles to his name; having missed the delayed 2021 championships due to the birth of his daughter, he raced confidently to dispossess Philip Vokes of the title - surely the shortest-ever reign as a British champion - finishing in 69.09. The eight titles represent the greatest dominance of a single event by an athlete, beating Yvette Baker (Hague)'s seven Long distance crowns from the 1990's. 2010 champ Alasdair McLeod led the early finishers, but was pushed back into 6th place (76.47).
Will Hensman hoovered up the M40 title in 70.15, as he transformed 2021 silver into 2022 gold, for his 2nd Night championship win, and Andy Llewellyn turned back the clock in style, returning to the winners enclosure for the first time since he was a junior, by winning the M35 title by almost 14 minutes (71.20).
James Hammond completed a full set of M16 titles, all held at the same time, as seven of the quickest 14 split times set him up well for a debut win in 51.53; Sam Hunt was a most credible 4th on the same course (62.11).
The fifth FVO medal of the evening was a bronze for Jon Cross, a time of 63.19 representing his best performance at the event since 2017, while Lizzie Stansfield, now racing for EUOC, won silver in W20 (61.33) as she was 20 seconds off the win.
Off the podium, there was a string of PB performances, as Jamie Goddard (5th in M18 - 59.12), Colin Matheson (7th in M65 - 74.35), Bryony McLeod (8th in W21 - 80.29) and Josie Stansfield (7th in W50 - 88.25) all shone.
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