Big Day at Beecraigs
The 2025 FVO Club Championship at Beecraigs Country Park near Linlithgow was perhaps the largest "local" event we've run in the 52 years of FVO.
As well as our own championship, our good friends from Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club also chose to make this event their championship, and there were a large number of athletes from other clubs as well as independent runners, and in all, there were 252 entries on the day, including shadowers.
This doesn't count the 50 or so juniors who came late to use the courses as a warmup exercise ahead of the British Schools Championship in Abercorn the following day. The figure is getting close to SOL territory, and by comparison, our entire programme of 27 races in 2016 had just shy of 1000 participants, so to get a third of this at a single event is nothing short of remarkable.
We had the services of local hero James Hammond as planner for the day, and he used all the tricks he's picked up on the international stage to set out some top quality courses that were right on the money. Paul Hammond did the organisation, as well as running results, largely solo.
There are two returning champions on top of the Open courses, although one has had a longer wait to return to the top step than the other. Marcus Pinker won his 4th Mens Open title, in a time of 67.13, but his first since 2006 (in fairness, he's been based in Wales for most of that time, and seldom had the chance to race in the championship). The Women's Championship featured the last three winners in its field, and Scarlett Kelly reclaimed the title she gave up last year, coming home in 55.56 to open up a seven minute gap over the field.
There's not much change at the top of the six junior championships, with four of last year's winners retaining the titles. The U10 prizes remain where they were in 2024, as Leo Lockyer (23.12) and Emma Cheyne (23.40) kept their grip on the trophies. Something old, something new in U14, where James Edward claimed his first club championship in U14 boys (15.53) and Hannah Inman (17.22) kept the U14 girls trophy for another year. Likewise in the U18 classes, Peter Owen (34.41) takes home the boys title for a third year, and there's a new name on the U18 girls trophy, where Isla Cheyne came out tops.
The Veteran Men's class has been dominated in recent years by Dave Godfree and Will Hensman, with three wins apiece, but with neither in the field today, there was a chance for a new winner. New it wasn't, but Roger Goddard topped a large field to win in 52.10, for his first win in 10. On the womens side, Janine Inman lifted her sixth title in eight years, this time in 52.10.
Old champ, new champ once again in SuperVet, where Alison Cunningham has the trophy again, in a quite remarkable 28.11. and Simon Hunt is a champion for the first time in FVO, leading the men's class with a large winning margin and a time of 46.44.
We've added new UltraVet classes this year, for the athletes aged 70 and over, and the winners on the first run were Geoffrey Hensman (72,11) and Liz Godfree (48.11). Whether the UltraVet Men remain on the Green course, or move to Short Green remains to be seen, but they were insistent last year that they wanted to stay on the same course, but not be counted along with the 60 year olds.