Triple-Double for Flyers
FVO Flyers successfully defended its British title, and joined an elite band of teams to have done the JK-British double in the same season following the national relay at Bigland
Peter Molloy was seven seconds back in 2nd place after the opener (35.49) but Chris Smithard opened up the lead to just over a minute with a 39.19 middle time, allowing Graham Gristwood to run in the win in 34.23. EUOC, with James Hammond posting the quickest middle leg (36.26) was 2nd, but was hampered in their bid for the title by a ten minute drop on the opening leg.
There have now been 10 occasions where both trophies are in the same hands, but FVO leads the way with three wins, from SHUOC, with EUOC, INT, SYO, CLYDE and University of London also featuring.
This was one of five medals on the day for FVO, three of them gold, and the first came to the M14 team of James Edward (19.50) , Matthew Owen (29.53) and Lucas Baikie (19.51, who led from start to finish, with all three posting the quckest time for their individual leg.
There was double success in M50, as Roger Goddard (32.57), Marcus Pinker (31.02) and Dave Godfree (33.58) emulated the youngsters, again leading from the off with the three quickest times. The B team of Ben Stansfield (37.48), Fraser Purves (41.10) and Jason Inman (37.48) was 3rd.
The fifth and final medal is in M40, where Jon Cross had to reshuffle his pack pre-race, due to athlete unavailbility, and named himself as the closing leg runner. Will Hensman (4th in 39.37) and Dom Edward (3rd in 45.17) set him up for a chase, and a time of 44.21 helped repel BAOC for the silver.