The Joy of Six
FVO athletes were in excellent form at the largest multi-day orienteering event in the UK as they won 12 medals including two overall titles at the Scottish Six Days event on Royal Deeside.
The biannual event attracts more than 2000 entries from across Europe, and the 25th version took competitors back to Aberdeenshire for the fifth time on some of the best orienteering terrain in the country.
Alison Cunningham was prominent as the front of the W60 field across the series, and was the only woman to win more than one stage, and she clinched the overall title by one point, as well as the FVO crown for best Veteran athlete. James Hammond had the M20L title wrapped up in four days, and was also the best local Senior.
There was a two way tie for Best Junior, as both James Edward (M14A) and Esme Kelly (W16A) were 3rd in their class, and there were bronze medals for Kirsty Bryan-Jones (W50L) and Rona Molloy (W55L).
There was also a flurry of medals on the Short courses, where Geoffrey Hensman was 2nd in M75S, and granddaughter Lucy was 2nd in W20S, along with Laura Cox in W40S and Jon Marsden in M50S. Bronze medals for Neil Conway (M55S) and Martin Dean (M65S) rounded off the local trophy haul.
The run-in competition was its largest-ever, with 111 competitors going to the start line on the first day in a keenly-fought knockout competition, and Sam Hunt became the fifth winner of the title, as he overcame Chris Kelly by two seconds in the final.
The middle day saw a Sprint event which wasn't part of the overall programme, but there was more local success, with ten athletes on podiums, and an 11th one second outside the medals.
In the Women's SuperVet class, all three medallists were from FVO, as Alison Cunningham won the class in 15.55, from Rona Molloy (17.15) with Heather Fellbaum 3rd in 17.32. The Men's Vet class was an FVO show, where Will Hensman (16.09) led proceedings, and Chris Kelly (16.58) was 3rd. Paul Hammond, Dom Edward and Roger Goddard were also in top seven placings.
James Hammond was 3rd (16.49) in Men's Open, and there was success too in the junior classes, where Fraser Cheyne (12.26) was 2nd in Junior Men, a placing also taken by Sophie Edward in Young Junior Women (9.21) although she was behind Sean Truswell in the overall standings, with his time of 8.29 good only for 3rd in Young Junior Men. Roslyn Birch was 3rd in Yellow (17.09) and Dave Coustick (18.34) was denied a place on the HyperVet Men's podium by a single second.