Forth Valley to the fore
Strong performances near and far
Forth Valley Orienteers athletes have been out and about at some of the big summer festival races across Europe and have produced a number of fine performances in top quality fields.
Marcus Pinker scored a significant win at the OO Cup in south-east France. Racing in the M35 Ultimate class, which featured maps with the paths removed, Marcus had three stage wins over the five days of competition and finished 13.44 ahead Thomas Hirter of Switzerland.
Jason Inman was prominent in the same class but had to settle for fourth spot behind Norway’s Jan Kocbach with a bout of heat exhaustion on day three costing him nine minutes and proving to be the decisive result in the series.
Janine Inman, in her first race since the 2016 British Championships, was right up there in W40, and led the class after two days. However, Kathi Widler (Switzerland) opened up a 10-minute lead on day three and although Janine remained close to the Swiss athlete over the rest of the competition indeed beating her into third place on the final day - she came up just short in the end, finishing in a most creditable silver medal position.
All of Britain’s rain from the last four weeks seems to be falling specifically on the Lake District right now, but that hasn’t prevented the FVO contingent from recording 13 podium finishes, including six class wins on the first two days of the 2019 Lakes 5 Days this week.
Jamie Goddard was impressive in carving out a 50-second margin to take the spoils in M14A on day one, finishing in 37.00 for his first win of the year.
Martin Dean renewed his long-time battle with Roxburgh Reivers’ John Tullie in M60, winning stage one by 74 seconds in 51.42 before a second place finish to the Borderer on day two (47.07).
Hazel Dean leads W55 with back to back wins - by seven minutes (51.38) and a narrow 40-second gap (47.37) ahead of Norway’s Kari Kristiansen while Ruairidh Flint is tearing it up in the M16 short races, recording victory margins of 37 minutes and 13 minutes on the opening two stages.
Laura Hindle is well placed in W20L, snagging second place on the opening day in a time of 49.01 while Laura Hendrie scored the second place finish in W21S (52.41).
The honours parade was completed by Cathy Tilbrook, who worked hard on the opening day for third spot in W50L (66.16), coupled with a fourth place finish on day two (50.18).
Performance of the day on stage two went to Fiona Hendrie.
Having elected to run up no fewer than three age classes, Fiona claimed second place in the W40 short race in a time of 50.26 while Jon Cross manoeuvred his way into contention in M50, with a solid 51.23 in a near errorfree round.