Geoffrey Hensman, Scottish Six Days 2, Balfour (c) Wendy Carlyle

Forth Valley Orienteers descended on the Lake District for their spring training camp, and had a number of successes at two English League races along the way.

The club was shorn of the services of its junior stars, who were at their own training camp in Morayshire, but the presence of the GB Development Squad meant that the Lakes races were of a high standard throughout. There was added spice in that the Jan Kjellstrom International Festival, the UK's largest and most prestigious event, will take place in the Lake District at Easter, and this was the final opportunity for many of the competitors to get in terrain practice ahead of that event.

Alison Cunningham continued her fine start to 2023 with 2nd place on the opening day's Green course (51.30), while Geoffrey Hensman was 3rd on Short Green (47.09). Long distance wins for Martin Dean (Green - 47.15), Hazel Dean (Short Green - 49.42) and Heather Thomson (Light Green (51.43) brought a welcome hat-trick on the shorter TD5 courses. Rob Truswell was 3rd (57.49) on the Light Green course, while Alistair Thornton picked up a valuable 3rd place on the Black course (55.32).

The next generation of juniors was making its first away trip over the weekend and they dominated the Yellow class. Catriona Downie snapped up the middle distance win in 45.02, with Sean Trusswelll 3rd in 58.42, one second ahead of Aalya Tijhuis. On the Long course, Freya McDaid bided her time before running in for the win in 53.53, with sister Erin 13 seconds back.

Hannah Inman was untouchable all weekend, winning the middle distance Orange race by over ten minutes, in 26.04, and following it up with another victory on the long course in 30.51, as she laid out her credentials to challenge for major honours this year.

Heather Fellbaum was on international duty at the Interland match in Belgium, which saw England take on the Netherlands, Luxembourg, northern France and the two Belgian regions, and turned in a sterling performance to take 2nd place in the W60 race behind team-mate Jane Morgan. Flanders were strong across the board, scooping ten wins from the remaining 13 classes to win the competition by 15 points.