James Hammond, JK champion

FVO got its 2023 season off to the best of starts, with success right across the board at the EUOC Big Weekend in Edinburgh.

First on the card was a night race around Dean Village, which had more than 300 entrants, and Scarlett Kelly forewent her place in the junior race, to claim a famous victory, topping the 156 runners on the Short course in 22.40. Alison Cunningham, 5th on her FVO debut in 24.50, and Laura Hendrie 10th in 27.24 made it a club trio in the top 10 of the class.

James Hammond looked set to join Scarlett in the winner's enclosure, as he held off all-comers on the Long course, with an early-logged time of 21.33, and it took the world #4 Yannick Michiels to eject him from the big chair. Chris Smithard (4th in 23.10) and Will Hensman (5th in 23.59) meant we had three in the first ten here as well.

The Edinburgh City Race saw six FVO athletes on class podiums, amongst a host of fine course performances, at the first Scottish Urban League race of 2023. Alison Cunningham may have changed the colour of her uniform this year , but not the colour of her metal, as she won the SuperVet Womens class in 32.27, prior to picking up the 2022 champions trophy.

Our Veterans are acclaimed as the strongest squad in Scotland, and they were prominent once again today, with silver medals for Paul Hammond (Veteran men - 43.23) Rachel Kirkland (Veteran women – 42.45) and Cathy Tilbrook (SuperVet women – 35.53).

The juniors got in on the act too, with James Hammond taking bronze in the Open Mens race (41.35) and Scarlett Kelly matching this in the Junior Womens class she won last year (14.08).

There were some stunning performances in the Classic race on Arthur's Seat which closed out the weekend, and pride of place went to Esme Kelly, who won the Light Green course in 51.32. Lucy Finch also collected a win, on the White course (21.59) with Arthur Emslie-Godfree 2nd (26.59). James Hammond went off in the mass start on the Brown course, and was just edged into 2nd place in a sprint finish (67.04), while Scarlett Kelly's excellent weekend continued with 3rd on the Green course (55.02).

There were notable performances too from Will Hensman, who raced like a man half his age to take 6th on Brown (76.56), Mark Wood, who showed he's not just effective in Urban events (8th on Blue in 76.05), Alison Cunningham, who was just held out of the medals on Green (56.34) and Esme Finch, who showed that being called Esme is conducive to a good performance (5th on Orange in 58.34).