Vets Win by a Whisker
Scotland scored a remarkable come-from-behind victory at Loch Ard to win the Veteran Home International by the narrowest of margins and end 11 years of England dominance in the event.
There were quiet hopes that a Scotland team, which featured ten FVO athletes, could make an impression on home soil, and Graham Gristwood had a massive 23 minute margin in M40 (65.54), while Will Hensman won M45 (77.44) and Dave Godfree topped M50 (75.05) where Roger Goddard was 3rd (83.34).
In the womens races, Janine Inman took the bronze medal in W45 (69.19), as did Beccy Osborn in W50 (61.50) and Kirsty Bryan-Jones in W55 (69.35) while in W60, both FVO athletes got into the medals, with Alison Cunningham (51.23) 43 seconds off the win in silver, and Vicky Thornton (58.32) in bronze
With a ten point deficit overnight, Scotland knew that only their best game would do, and things were looking rocky after the first leg of the MWM relay, with the best Scotland team in 5th place.
However, the Scots had back-loaded their teams, and were back to the top of the podium after the women's leg. Jenny Peel was quickest on the leg (29.50) ahead of Vicky Thornton (31.14) but a 3rd place on the leg for Kirsty Bryan-Jones (31.17) had Scotland A in front.
Graham Gristwood consolidated the Scotland advantage with a 28.53 leg to come in with a seven minute advantage. Will Hensman was next out of the forest, 3rd quickest for the leg in 33.45, but it wasn't quite a 1-2-3 as the top England team got in just ahead of Scotland C for third place.
The action quickly shifted to the WMW race, and Alison Cunningham gained an early advantage for Scotland A, with the quickest time on the opening leg (26.51) to put them in the lead. Team-mates Alistair Landels and Claire Ward needed no invitation to stay up top, and made it two Scotland wins for the day.
Dave Godfree scored the quickest men's leg, in 28.46, to send out Janine Inman for a chase at the England pack, and although Janine was 5th on her leg (35.50) the points gained were to prove crucial.
The entire competition boiled down to a race for 8th; if BASOC's Rebecca Morris got in ahead of the 2nd Wales runner, Scotland would win the relay, and take the overall title on podium countback, and Rebecca did what had to be done, coming in 52 seconds ahead of the Welsh woman for perhaps the biggest cheer of the day.