Peter Molloy, JK 2017 Middle Distance champion

Peter Molloy had the standout performance on another stellar day for FVO at the Jan Kjellstrom International Festival of Orienteering with a gold medal performance in the M16 class.

Despite being in the first year of the age-group, Peter turned out a blazing time of 25.34 to take the win by almost a minute from Devon's Flurry Grierson, with Norway-based Bendik Eliassen in third place. This was just one of seven medals claimed by FVO athletes at Ambersham Common in the middle distance races on a day that saw over half of the local entrants finish in top ten spots.

Graham Gristwood and Kris Jones followed South London's Ralph Street home in the elite mens' class, Gristwood 30 seconds down on his international team-mate with Jones a further minute back. FVO took three of the top five places in the class, with Chris Smithard filling out the top five, just one second off fourth place.

Grace Molloy snagged her second silver medal of the weekend in W18E, as once again only Thames Valley's Fiona Bunn proved faster over the course. Grace's time of 21.24 was 2/12 minutes clear of Clyde's Emma Wilson in 3rd place. Clare Stansfield was 10th (26.18).

Rachel Hendrie was 2nd in W20S (27.16), while mum Fiona took a similar position in W55S (34.56). The final FVO medal of the day went to Roger Goddard, who was 3rd in M40L in 33.29 having held 2nd place until former FVO athlete Nick Barrable came in with the fastest time of the day late on.

Outside the medal spots, there were standout performances from Fanni Gyurko (W21E), Ben Stansfield (M45L), Lizzie Stansfield (W16A), Rona Molloy (W45L), Beccy Osborn (W45L), Jamie Connor (M10A) and Ian Hendrie (Orange), who all took top ten places in some extremely competitive classes.

As the JK titles are decided over the course of the whole weekend, there will be keen interest on the final day of individual competition at Holmbush in the western Wealds for the long distance races.