Breezy, sunny conditions welcomed the hundreds of runners at the 18th Sussex Cross Country relays held at Goodwood on Saturday.
More than 150 teams gathered to compete in the annual event with Crawley (2) Arena 80 (3) and Brighton Phoenix (3) winning more than one title.
The first event of the day was the Under 13 races. Haywards Heath won the boys’ race in 31:11 with Arun Kursheed storming ahead from the start clocking 9:50 for the fastest leg. Brighton and Hove’s Dulcie Yelling, with her third leg, was the fastest Under 13 girl in 10:43, but Crawley were victorious in the team contest in a time of 32:45. In this team Stephanie Shaw’s 10:52 was the second fastest on the day and Rihanon Daniels 10:54 third.
Crawley were soon celebrating again winning the Under 15 boys’ race in 28:23. Like the Under 13s they ran the 2.8K course. On the first leg Nick Hollan-Ellidge (Crawley) and Louis Goodwin (Lewes) pushed each other all the way until the end stages when Hollan-Ellidge pulled away to grab the fastest leg on the day in 9:12. Goodwin’s time of 9:20 was third fastest as team-mate Archie Guppy ran a brilliant third leg in 9:19.
Eastbourne were first in the Under 15 girls, with two of their team being part of the winning Under 13 team in 2018. One of these was Eleanor Strevens, who flew round in 9:59 clocking the fastest leg in this category.
Brighton Phoenix’s first win of the day came in the Under 17 girls. The team of Poppy Palmer-Malins, Alice Wright and Milly Dickinson completed the 4k course in 45:54. It was Lewes athlete, Harriet Bloor, on the first leg that was the quickest on the day though in 14:36.
Another Lewes athlete, Adam Dray, took the fastest lap for the Under 17 men’s relay in 12:41. Together with Aaron Duncan and Joe Callard, they also won the team title in 39:57.
Arena 80s domination came in the women’s races taking the senior title (45:30), the V35 (47.46) and the V45 (45.52). Chichester were first in the V55s in 53:26. Fastest legs here were Worthing’s Olivia McDonald (senior women) in a time of 14:42, Emma Footman (Worthing) 14:38 (V35), Caroline Hoyte, Arena 80, 14:29 (V45) and Jane Harrop, Chichester, 16:18 (V55).
With two of the team scoring in the three fastest legs, it was no surprise that the Brighton and Hove AC team retained their 2018 title in the Senior Men’s race in a time of 50:20. William Cork’s 12:11 was the fastest on the day with Tomer Tarragano’s 12:26 second and Ned Potter (Chichester) third with 12:29.
Lewes won the V40 men’s race in 54:35, with James Baker (Chichester) running quickest in 12:31. Brighton Phoenix took both the V50 (64:12) and V60 (50:36) titles. Lewes’ athlete, Lewis Sida, ran 14:39 for the fastest V50 lap and Paul Whelpton (Brighton Phoenix) number one in the V60s in 15:26.