The Brighton & Hove Athletic Club flew the Sussex flag in the National 12 stage Road Relay championships at Sutton Park on Saturday and managed to finish in the top half of the field of 75 teams.
They had qualified with an excellent eleventh place in the South of England championship a couple of weeks back but the clash with this weekend’s Brighton Marathon and 10km race and a couple of top athletes away on Altitude training team manager Howard Bristow did well to get out a representative squad.
He led the way by taking the tough opening 8km leg and did well finish in 18th place in 28:00 while r Tim Lunnon slipped to 25th on the second leg in 17:08 before Graeme Godden dropped to 33rd in 30:40, the second fastest long lap for the Sussex team. The team got stuck in the low thirties for most of the race despite some steady runs.
Josh Mutch clocked the team’s fastest short leg when lifting the team from 34th to 33rd on the eighth leg in 17:06 but over the final three legs Kevin Silsby moved up to 30th in 17:34 while on the penultimate leg veteran Dave Benton lifted them into 29th place in 31:32 a position that Martin Brookes retained on the final leg in 17:56.