Holly Stodgell won two silver medals at the British Championships

The orienteering championship season concluded with a double header of British Sprint and Middle distance events in Northern Ireland, and FVO athletes were once again to the fore, winning three titles amongst seven podium finishes.

Holly Stodgell was in dreamland as she collected a pair of silver medals in the W20 classs. Having not featured on a championship podium since she was 10 years old, Holly thought her chances of further glory were over, but took advantage of the absence of several of the leading athletes in the class to take the silver medal in the Sprint in 20.01, and followed it up with another strong performance in the Middle distance event for another silver medal in 40.34.

Jamie Goddard came close to matching Holly's feat in M20, with Sprint silver (15.05) and Middle bronze (37.13) for his best championship since 2016, while Roger Goddard came up just short in his bid for a 5th British Middle title, with silver in 41.20.

Will Hensman had a mixed bag of a weekend as, having qualified for the Sprint final with the quickest time, it emerged he had missed out a checkpoint, and he was disqualified. He was allowed to race the final as a non-competitive athlete, and posted a time which would have won him the Gold medal. However, he put his disappointment behind him to remain in touch through the Middle distance event, and won the title in 47.22 behind two overseas athletes who were non-counting in the championship standings.

There was double success in the women's veteran classes, as Rachel Kirkland recaptured her W50 title in a time of 16.07, and Vicky Thornton, who is better known as a forest athlete, picked up her first-ever British Sprint crown in W60 in 15.46.

The signs were clear that Vicky was in good form going into the event, as she won the All-Ireland Sprint title in County Wicklow in the days leading up to the British Championship in 17.00, and followed it up with the gold medal in the All-Ireland Long distance (45.12), just up on team-mate Heather Fellbaum, who took silver.

The pair rounded off a memorable Irish Championship, as they recruited Sheila Lewsley from Border Liners to make up a SuperVet women's relay team, and won the race, with Vicky coming through on the final leg to turn a 90 second deficit into a 90 second win.