Relay Records Shattered on 10 Medal Day

04 May, 2025

On a fantastic day of ten medals at the Scottish Relay Championships, Alison Cunningham became the most senior Open champion in recent history as she anchored the FVO Female Flyers to victory in the Women's Relay.

Alison replaced Grace Molloy, who was in Sweden at the TioMila Relay in the lineup from the JK, and when Alison Smithard touched home on the opening leg with an identical time (32.04) with Mairi Eades for INT, the game was afoot. Clare Stansfield has only recently returned to competitive action after several years in the student ranks, but she opened up a good gap on the middle leg (33.09) to send Alison away with a lead of more than three minutes, and although INT pegged back some of this, Alison was too far ahead and too good into the finish to surrender the lead for an audacious win in 99.15.

The result ends nine years of EUOC dominance in the event, and with an under-strength student team failing to get amongst the medals, is the first time in more than 25 years the Edinburgh girls have gone away empty-handed

TioMila also meant extensive changes to the Flyers lineup in the men's competition, with Will Hensman and Andy Llewellyn coming in from the victorious JK Senior team. Up against the cream of the GB Development team in the shape of EUOC, they didn't have a leg to stand on, on paper at least.

Orienteering, however, is run on terrain, not paper, and after Will kept it tight to the front in 3rd (35.51), both Andy and Chris Smithard had the quickest time for their leg, including Andy taking 40 seconds off James Hammond on the middle leg, to get back in 101.10, just eight seconds off what would have been a remarkable win.

The Junior relays went off first, to prevent small children being trampled in the melee, and there was notable FVO success, with four medals secured, including wins in both races. The only title FVO won last year was the Under 36 version, and this year's outfit was in determined mood to defend the honour for a third straight year. Sophie Edward (12.40) was prominent on the opener in 2nd place, and once again Sean Truswell broke the hearts of the opposition, putting up a 4 1/2 minute gap (12.38) to allow Lachlan Carruthers to run it in in 17.59.

There was an added bonus in bronze medal place, as, thanks to the presence of two very young athletes in the team, it was possible to select 15 year old Matthew Inman for the closer, and he was able to power out a quite ridiculous leg time of 11.48 to secure 3rd place for his team, which included Ethan Baikie and Lucy Finch.

There was more success in the older age group, as Lucas Baikie (17.15) and James Edward (12.29) set up Fraser Cheyne (18.40) for a simple run to the line. The second placed team was declared ineligible, due to having three 16 year olds in it, and Eilidh Connor (24.21), Esme Finch (13.49) and Matthew Owen (19.33) were promoted into the silver medal, the first time since 2013, and only the second ever that the same club has held both junior relay titles at the same time.

The Scottish Relays features a unique handicapping system for the non-elite, non-junior classes, with the intention being to bring all the teams home at the same time, and extensive work by Jon Cross goes into selecting FVO teams with the potential to medal.

The +11 relay saw FVO take the top two spots, as Roger Goddard (31.36) and the skipper himself (37.35) set up Dom Edward (28.31) to bring home the win in 97.42 composite, but they had to look sharp into the line to repel the challenge of their clubmates, as Dave Godfree (31.38). Peter Owen (35.20) and Ben Stansfield (30.54) were just ten seconds back in silver medal place.

The +23 team was leading the whole shooting match after strong legs from Heather Fellbaum (19.45) and Rachel Kirkland (28.46) but fell away in the closing stages with Gary Longhurst's leg time of 47.02 bringing them silver in the sub-division, while in +20, Cathy Tilbrook (27.29). Louise Longhurst (32.05) and Ross McLennan (34.45) got up late for the bronze.

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