Five Across the Middle
Local athletes captured five medals at the British Middle Championships in Shropshire on a warm spring day, as they more than doubled their haul from last year.
The planners' notes for the championship at Brown Clee Hill listed hazards including compass-bending rocks, quicksand, uncrossable trenches and finger-removing animal traps, but a large local contingent was in its element, with a number of top performances both on and off the podium.
Having already won all three legs of the Jan Kjellstrom Festival, Hannah Inman secured the second leg of what would be a fantastic British Championship triple-topper, as she went off like a gazelle to lead W14 from start to finish, and come home with a four minute lead over the field (24.34).
Chris Smithard's only previous medal in the event was a gold when he was a junior, and he could have taken the easy option of an M35 run, but champion athletes don't take easy options, and he was right in the thick of things in M21, to take the silver medal (35.31).
STUOC's Sophie Howard claimed the W18 bronze in 33.16, for her first-ever major championship medal, and there were also bronze medals for two veteran athletes. Vicky Thornton featured regularly on the podium in her MDOC days, and was back in the big time this year as she was 3rd (35.43) in W65. with just 37 seconds separating the medallists. Heather Fellbaum's previous best was a 4th in 2018, but she went one better this time to claim the W60 bronze (41.17).
The "subsidiary" event was nothing less than an English Area Champs, with the Midlands Championship taking place on the same general terrain, and although the medals were reserved for athletes from Midlands clubs, half of the FVO contingent placed in the top 10 in their field, including an audacious run-in podium for one youngster.
Lucas Baikie got better and better as the M16A race went on, and had the 2nd quickest final split to earn himself a share of 3rd place. (52.55). Lachlan Carruthers was 7th (48.32) in M14A, Dom Edward posted the same position in M45L (72,23) and Alexander Hunt was 10th (80.43) in M18E.
Heather Fellbaum ran up one class, and took an excellent 4th place (61.03) in W55L, Esme Finch was 6th (47.19) in W14A, and Hannah Inman also raced "up" and was 7th (58.03) in W16A, with half of those ahead of her in the GB team for this summer's European Championships.