Trials and Trophies
The first selection races for the summer's junior internationals proved successful for local athletes, with a number of them well placed in two events in West Sussex.
James Hammond marked his intention for another banner season, as he won both forest (24.23) and Sprint (16.10) races to take a firm grip on qualification for the Junior World Championships in Italy. Scarlett Kelly was 4th in both her races, but is 3rd overall in the standings, while Esme Kelly was 5th in the forest, and 8th on the streets, with the pair certainly in the mix for the European Youth Championships in Czechia.
The Sprint event saw two more local athletes in the top 10, with Alexander Hunt 8th in the U16 class and Rebecca Hammond 9th in U18. The remaining three selection races take place in Yorkshire over the easter weekend at the Jan Kjellstrom International Festival.
The two races were part of a larger weekend of competition, with the British Middle distance championship at Holmbush, followed by a UK League race, and FVO had two medallists at the Middle, as Andy Llewellyn added the only medal missing from his trophy cabinet, dominating by over four minutes to win the M35 title (39.58).
Roger Goddard secured his 10th career medal in this event alone, and his 77th major honour in total, as he was 2nd in M50 (40.37), while James Hammond topped M20 in a pretty rapid 24.23 for his third win in three outings.
There were a number of FVO athletes in good form in Sunday's UKOL race at Worthlodge Forest near Crawley, with seven of them placing in the top 10 in their races. Pride of place went to Lucas Baikie, who ran out of class to take an audacious Green course win in 36.34. Will Hensman also topped his class, Brown in this case, for more UKOL points for his tally (61.49).
There were two local youngsters on the Light Green course, and Matthew Owen was 3rd overall (37.02) while Esme Finch was 6th (41.12) as the 3rd placed girl on the day. Dave Coustick was 5th on Short Green (52.56) while Andy Llewellyn was 7th on Black (71.27), having challenged the podium through the first half of the race and Lindsey Hensman was 9th (65.05) on Very Short Green.