What a cracker from Finn McNally (Brighton Phoenix) in the Sussex County Senior cross-country championships at Bexhill on Saturday when he broke a record.
No not the number of victories as I believe, although he has been around for many years, it was his first County cross-country title but he smashed Tim Hutchings long standing record for the largest margin of victory.
Way back in 1987 the Crawley athlete put 1min.57sec, between himself and Brighton & Hove’s Richard Carter over the Lancing Manor course.
McNally, with the assistance of U20 athlete Stephen Ferroni (Brighton & Hove), who kept pace with the Phoenix runner as they pounded through the Bexhill mud for the first two of the four laps, and he was not that far ahead of Ferroni when the U20 runner peeled off to complete an even more convincing victory in the U20 championship.
McNally was left to do the last of the four laps on his own to win in 38:22, two minutes and fifteen seconds ahead of reigning champion Jon Pepper who was hoping to win his fifth successive title.
McNally had led the race from the start, with Ferroni, while Pepper settling down in second senior place and Brighton & Hove’s Max Dumbrell having the race of his lifetime to determinedly hang on to third place from the completion of the first lap.
McNally looked to be in great form in the mud, which was not as bad as anticipated but it was getting pretty glutinous for the final senior men’s and women’s races.
This was not entirely a case of Pepper being out of form as McNally’s winning time was a full minute faster than Pepper’s winning time last year.
It will be interesting to see how McNally fairs in the South of England championships at the end of the month where Pepper finished third last year.
Dumbrell had a brilliant run to take the bronze medal in 40:44, just seven seconds adrift and local runner James Mountford also had much better than expected run placing fourth in 41:14 and there were also outstanding runs from Crawley’s Paul Navesey and Patrick Hough (Lewes) who filled fifth and sixth places sharing 41:27.
In the men’s U20 event Ferroni actually did better than McNally as he beat second placed Billy White (Phoenix) by two minutes and twenty seven seconds clocking 29:20 to 31:47 with Harry Leleu from Chichester taking third place in 32:15.
The senior/U20 women’s race saw Worthing’s Emma Macready, who has dominated the League races in Sussex this season, determined to hold on to England junior international Grace Baker from Hastings. Try as she may however she could not prevent repeat of last year’s race where Baker, who was competing in the U20 race, crossing the line well clear recording 24:54 to 25:29 but, of course, both took gold medals.
Another U20 Leah Harris from Worthing was third home in 25;56 while yet another U20 runner, Brighton & Hove’s Martha Coyle was fourth (third in U20s) in 26:22 before the senior silver medallist Issy Coomber came home in 26:58 and former champion Fiona Clarke (Arena 80) took the senior bronze medal in 27:37.
The last time that Eastbourne’s Dan Stidder and Brighton & Hove’s Brodie Denholm clashed at Bexhill in November they virtually staged a dead heat in the U17 age group but Stidder took no chances on Saturday.
Steaming into the lead from the start Denholm was left to chase but never managed to get to grips with him with Stidder clocking 18:21 to 18:43 with Sam Whitby from Worthing having a fine run to take third place in 19:32.
There was a surprise winning the women’s U17 with Karina Bennett (Chichester), who has not won either the League events this season racing well clear of Worthing’s Hannah Binstead recording 22:15 to 22:42 with Romy Van de Veen from Horsham taking the bronze medal 22:41.
Ben Collins (Chichester) retained his unbeaten record in Sussex this season in the U15 championships but just two seconds separated him from Ben Martin (Lewes) in 15:36 while Tomer Tarragano (Brighton & Hove) clocked 15:49 in third place.
Ellen Crombie (Hastings) repeated her victory in the last League race for a comfortable victory in the U15 women’s race clocking 15:51 to Bodywork’s Poppy Mercer’s 15:02 while Almi Nerurkar (Phoenix) took third place in 15:04.
Worthing’s Luke Ellard was again in complete charge in the in the U13 boy’s race putting some forty metres between himself in Edward Armitage (Bodyworks) clocking 11:26 to 11:36 with local athlete Isaac Elam clocking 11:45 in third place.
Emulating elder sisters Bethany Cook (Bodyworks) took the girl race in 12:28, just two seconds ahead of local girl Maya Ramnarine while Phoenix’s Eloise Nicholl took third place in 12:35.
The winners of the U11 races were Joseph Collier from Worthing and Eastbourne's Eleanor Strevens