JK Relay - Leed(s)ing from the Front
A truly memorable Jan Kjellstrom International Festival of Orienteering came to an end for FVO today, as they left Yorkshire with seven more medals in the trophy cabinet after the relay at Middleton Park, Leeds.
The first medal was secured in double-quick time, as the Minis successfully defended their title with a strong performance throughout. With all of last year's team having now graduated to the older ranks, this was a new lineup, but there were no doubts from the watching crowd, with a display of front-running.
Sophie Edward kept it tight to the front on the opener, coming back one minute off the lead (8.40), but Sean Truswell (8.56) broke the race open with the quickest 2nd leg time, leaving Lachlan Carruthers (8.09) a front-race to the line.
Our elite men are generally in contention for the JK Trophy, and a strong team was named again this year to defend their title. Peter Molloy (32.20) was first home on the opening leg, as he handed over to Chris Smithard, who was in for his first appearance of the weekend. Octavian Droobers moved up from 5th at the changeover to take the lead, with Chris 2nd on his leg (24.10). Graham Gristwood had been moved from his regular middle leg berth to try and inject some end-game pace, and was left to try and cut 22 seconds out of the Sprint champion - could he do it? Course he could!
Attacking savagely, he chased down the lead and turned a 22 second gap into a 23 second winning margin (30.53) with the quickest time to bring the Trophy back into FVO hands for the fifth time in eight years.
The Senior Men have the luxury of being able to call upon a host of athletes with top-level experience, and this year was no different. Mark Nixon blew the race away from the outset, logging a six minute (32.46) gap to hand over a strong lead to Will Hensman. The news from the field indicated that SYO, who were expected to be a leading challenger, had mispunched, and Will extended the lead by a further minute (28.57) leaving Andy Llewellyn to run it in, in 39.36.
We weren't done there though, and the B team, of honorary Vet Jamie Goddard (40.43), Marcus Pinker (30.32) and Roger Goddard (40.52) got up within sight of the flag to snatch the bronze medal out of the grasp of OD.
While the elite men have had the Indian Sign on the Trophy, it's been a few years since FVO contended in the Women's Trophy, but there were quiet hopes of success this time around.
Alison Smithard went round the opening leg in 31.19 to remain in sight of the front, but Clare Stansfield realised her potential from her junior years with the 3rd quickest time on the middle leg (28.56) to elevate the team into the provisional medals
Just like GG, Grace Molloy was handed the task of chasing down the Sprint champion - surely not twice in a day? Very nearly! Grace called upon all her closing leg tech to reduce the gap to seven seconds by the end (29.13) and secure the bronze medal.
The UltraVet race rules allow a 10 year handicap against age for women, so why not run three W60s and see how you get on? Skipper Jon Cross dipped into his bag of tricks and came out with a strong team to take on the challenge.
Heather Fellbaum was 8th (26.54) on the opener, which became 7th after a mispunch further up the board was detected, while Vicky Thornton (29.32) raced well to bring the team up into silver medal position. Race leaders Border Liners faded on the closing leg, and Happy Herts came out of the pack to take the win, but Alison Cunningham was strong again on the closer, with the 3rd quickest time (24.42) to secure the silver, 22 seconds off the front.
The Intermediate Men, meanwhile, were sniffing on the edges of their podium following good performances from both Alexander Hunt (25.07) and Lucas Baikie (13.49) and were able to take advantage of other teams fading in the closing stages, with Peter Owen putting down the quickest closing leg time (23.47) to lift them from 4th to 2nd.
There were chances in both Veteran classes, but mispunches ruled out a Men's silver and a Women's bronze.
All in all, FVO comes out of the 2025 JK eight medals better off that last year, in what may be a record-breaking campaign