A very Blue podium

Massive day for the posse at the Scottish Middle Championships on Tayside, as we returned nearly half of our 53 starters with a medal on an eight-win, 20 medal day at Hill of Alyth.

Janine Inman captured her 4th straight Womens Vet title, in a time of 37.09. with Rachel Kirkland 3rd in 41.53, while in Mens Vet, Roger Goddard remains undefeated, with three wins from three runs and another gold in 29.32. On both previous occasions, 2nd step has been filled by Jason Inman, and it was the same today, as Jase had a share of the silver medal in 31.42.

We showed our strength in depth on both W12 and Womens SuperVet courses, as we filled both class podiums entirely. Hannah Inman (14.08) and Esme Finch (15.48) were placed 1-2, just as last year, and Sophie Edward got on the podium for the first time with bronze in 19.34.

In the older age class, Alison Cunningham batted home her 2nd Scottish Championship medal of the year, in her bid to post a "double-fourpeat" of all the titles in one season, with victory in 34.08. Heather Fellbaum (35.41) and Vicky Thornton (35.57) were close behind, and Hazel Dean's 4th place meant all four of our W60s in leading positions, more than four minutes clear of the best placed W55.

Rebecca Hammond (37.04) struck the front of the W16 pack at the halfway mark, and ran on well to take the gold, with Scarlett Kelly (40.06) in 3rd. There were wins in M10 for Ethan Baikie (42.07) and M12 for Matthew Owen (16.11), while Fraser Cheyne had the silver in M14 (28.56) and Sean Truswell (18.01) took bronze in M12.

There was a 2nd place (40.58) in Mens SuperVet for Mark Wood, and a 3rd for Eilidh Connor (40.11) in W14, while Graham Gristwood rounded off the day's scorers by winning the Mens Open class in 32.16.

There were undestandably some tired legs afterwards, but that didn't stop an excellent half dozen from FVO getting onto their course podium today in Sunday's Scottish Orienteering League race at Balfour, on Royal Deeside.

Eilidh Connor had a sensational win on Light Green, topping the class ahead of all the boys in 50.55. Lucas Baikie had his best SOL result to date with 3rd on the same course in 56.40.

Jason Inman joined Eilidh in the winners' enclosure, as he headed all competitors on Short Brown (61.26), and there were 2nd place finishes for Roger Goddard (Brown - 79.20) and Alison Cunningham (Green - 47.26), with Alison only being held out of top place by an athlete running out of class. The day's final course medal came for Gary Longhurst, who was 3rd on Short Blue (58.03).