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FVO dominates national rankings

24 December, 2024

FVO athletes are prominent right across the board in the final British and Scottish ranking tables, with 41 in the UK top 20 in their class.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 75, or 60% of the entire club which has a Scottish ranking, features in the top 10 in Scotland, with most of the usual suspects included, as well as some who may be surprised at their end-of-season score.

Ranking tables have appeared this year for the first time which show only scores in forest races, as well as Sprint/Urban in addition to the overall combined totals, and both Chris Smithard (M35) and Scarlett Kelly (W16) are in an elite group which tops their age class across the board.  Graham Gristwood (M40) and Alison O'Neil (W35) are top of their class in the forest, and overall, but neither runs in urban events any more, while James Hammond (M18) also leads his class overall and in the forest, but is back in 17th in Urban-only races. 

And in the Urban/Sprint discipline, there are three from FVO who head their class on the tarmac, with Will Hensman (M45), Rachel Kirkland (W50) and Alison Cunningham (W60) all coming out in front. Under 15s don't get a national ranking, to prevent unnecessary competition between emerging athletes, but we know that some of our juniors would feature highly if they did get ranking points, and Alexander Hunt, Esme Kelly and Matthew Inman will all be eligible for points from 1st January.

Amongst the men, both Chris Smithard (M35) and Will Hensman (M45) top the Scottish rankings in all three disciplines.  We have a number of top athletes in the forest, with James Hammond (M18), Peter Molloy (M21), Graham Gristwood (M40), and Dave Godfree (M50) all leading both the national forest ranking and the overall tally in their class, although only James (5th) has an Urban ranking this year.  Roger Goddard, meanwhile, sits #1 in the Scottish rankings in the Urban discipline.

Amongst the ladies, three athletes (Scarlett Kelly in W16, Rachel Kirkland in W50 and Liz Godfree in W75) head their class across the board.  Alison O'Neil (W35), Jen Leonard (W55) and Hazel Dean (W60) are champions in the forest and overall in their class, but don't feature on the Urban lists this year, allowing Alison Cunningham to top the W60 Urban standings.