Gristwood is King of the Forest
Forth Valley's British number one Graham Gristwood completed his set of major British orienteering titles at the British long distance championships in Northumberland at the weekend.
The individual championships took place at Thrunton Woods and Callaly, 35 miles north of Newcastle. The terrain was varied, with Callaly containing a mixture of natural woodland and moorland, with a rich tapestry of contour and rock detail - including some magnificent rock pillars - whilst Thrunton Woods consisted of mixed forestry commission plantation, and a plateau of mature runnable pine forest with rock and contour detail.
Graham said of his run: "Long and rough and tough race - one of the most challenging physical and technical courses I have ever run in the UK. I 'enjoyed' it, but I never felt very comfortable or like I was running very fast at any point. I think containing the time spent hunting in the circle was key.
Great to finally get this trophy after being agonisingly close behind Jamie Stevenson and Oli Johnson at various times and finally become King of the Forest!"
FVO was of course well to the fore in many other classes and class winners were:
| Runner | Class |
|---|---|
| Peter Molloy | M12 |
| Graham Gristwood | M21 |
| Will Hensman | M35 |
| Ben Stansfield | M45 |
| Lizzie Stansfield | W12 |
| Grace Molloy | W14 |
| Hazel Dean | W50 |
Other entries categorised under: Success