Major Awards for FVO Pair
There was a unique double honour for two local orienteering stars as they collected the British Orienteering Performance of the Year awards at a ceremony in the Lake District.
The GB team celebrates the best annual performances at World Championship level, although there has been no presentation since 2019 due to a change in team management and the trophies being temporarily mislaid during Lockdown.
The Mike Wells-Coe Trophy is named for a GB athlete who died suddenly after a training run in 1978, and the 2025 award was made to Grace Molloy, for her 14th place in the WOC Long race in Finland.
The Youth Cup for the best JWOC performance went to to James Hammond, who was 4th in the Sprint in Italy, and ironically, the last recipient of the trophy was Grace. In the 35 years since the Youth Cup was inaugurated, the two awards have never gone to athletes from the same club in the same year.
There was a busy weekend of action in Scotland, with four races around the country, and the highlight from a local perspective was a pair of impressive Light Green course wins for Hannah Inman in Grantown on Spey and Aboyne. Hannah was the star turn nationally as a W12, but a niggling hip injury meant she missed the entire championship season in her first year as a W14. Leads of 14 ½ minutes at Anagach (36.16) and a massive 23 minutes at Birsemore Hill (45.55) show she's back to her best again.
Jason Inman took the Blue course silver medal at Birsemore in 71.59 and Lizzie Stansfield won on Green (61.40). The FVO junior men were out in force on the Anagach Blue course, and locked out a set of places, as Fraser Cheyne (59.04) was 6th ahead of Lucas Baikie (57.15) while Matthew Inman (57.41) beat James Edward (57.43) for 8th place.
The TINTO Twin event features two stages, both Night and Day, with the combined times determining the winners, and FVO athletes lifted four trophies, as Alison Cunningham won W60 (94.28), there was a 55 double for Rona Molloy (121.42) and Jon Cross (85.40) and W50 was won by Rachel Kirkland (93.38).
A number of athletes only raced the Day stage, and Yotam Bertrand topped the Brown course in 74.26, while Chad Harrison led out the Blue course competitors in 64.06. On Green, Chris Smithard was top dog (36.47) and on Orange, Caitlyn and Roslyn Birch were 2nd (53.31) ahead of Lindsey Hensman (66.40). The final medal of the day was a Yellow course win for Iona Harrison, in 14.44.