JK'24 Day 3 - Long Shots Hit the Target
The Jan Kjellström International Festival of Orienteering Long day in the Midlands proved to be a successful one for FVO, with 71 athletes going to the start line, and 10 of them coming away with a medal after racing at Beaudesert.
Scarlett Kelly showed her mettle in W16A by taking a share of the gold medal with ELO's Emily Atkinson. However she's nudged back into the overall silver medal berth, by the single second she shipped to Emily yesterday.
The three FVO Middle champions proved to be unstoppable over the Long distance as well. James Hammond picked up nearly ten minutes on the chasing pack in M18E, and a time of 67.10 cemented another big race win.
Dave Godfree was the pick of the pack in M50, coming back in 65.22 for a second gold, while Hannah Inman remains undefeated in her JK Long career, with the win today coming in 19.17. For a supposed "clean-shoes" sprinter, Chris Smithard displays more than a modicum of talent in Long races, and a fine silver in M21E (94.04) is his 4th in this race, three of them coming at elite level.
Alison Cunningham raced strongly in W60, and a time of 58.02 was good enough for the silver medal, keeping Vicky Thornton (63.11) back in bronze medal place. Roger "the seagull" Goddard's habit of hanging around the podium until someone tosses him a medal proved successful once again, as he stuck on another bronze medal in M50 (68.18), an incredible 9th in the JK Long alone. Dawn Goddard topped W55S in 57.24, and there was another bronze for Lucy Finch in W10B (22.01).
Off the podiums, Eilidh Connor (W14) and Ben Stansfield (M55) were both 4th in their class, in Ben's case for a new PB. Peter Molloy was 5th in M21, a placing also taken by Janine Inman (W45), Hazel Dean (W60), Jason Inman (M50) and Beccy Osborn, a new PB for Beccy. Steve Feltbower (M40) and Sam Hunt (M18) were both 7th, one place ahead of Jamie Goddard (M20) and Esme Finch (W12), while Heather Fellbaum rounded off the Long course top 10s with 9th in W60.
There was a bunch of short course top 10s as well, including a fine debut 4th place for Jack Cheyne in M45, and there were also event PBs for Peter Owen (M16), Paul Hammond (M45), Chris Kelly (M50) and Geoffrey Hensman (M75, while Mark Wood equalled his previous best in M55.
Other entries categorised under: Success