Temperatures felt more like June at the second cross country league fixture at Ardingly at the weekend.
More than 650 runners turned out to enjoy the conditions, even though underfoot was slightly tougher as a result of huge rainfall in the week before.
Brighton & Hove AC were the club most celebrating by the end of the day, winning 8 out of a possible 12 team contests.
As always, the fixture, kicked off with the Under 11s where Lewes AC Rex Hastings was 1st in the boys and Skye Widdows (Brighton & Hove AC) in the girls.
Then came the Under 13 girls where spectators saw a repeat of Goodwood with Katherine Haslip (Brighton & Hove AC) 1st (11.10), Isabella Buchanan (HY Runners) 2nd (11.22) and Bibi Webb 3rd (12.22).
With placings of 1st, 4th (Juliana Christopherson) and 8th(Seren Rowe), Brighton & Hove AC scored a winning team total of 13.
Brighton & Hove continued to flourish in the Under 13 boys’ scoring 10 points with George Gilbert (11.10) leading the team home in 1st, Sammy Harkin 3rd and Oliver Goodman 6th.
Eastbourne were the second team lead by Ben Wright (11.19) who was 2nd overall individually, whilst the Brighton & Hove B team were third.
In the Under 15 Girls, Molly Smithers (Chichester) made it 2 out of 2 crossing the line 1st in 16.00 with Crawley’s Rihanon Daniels 2nd (16.13) and Lewes AC’s Esme Stephenson 3rd (16.18).
Crawley were the team winners on the day with 15 points, 2 better than the team’s winning total at Goodwood.
Finlay Goodman (Brighton & Hove AC) looked as exceptional as ever in the Under 15 boys’ contest finishing in 14.03. Behind him in 2nd was Team
Bodyworks’ Lucas Gorrill (14.14) followed by Brighton & Hove AC Thomas Matthews (14.29).
The Brighton & Hove AC A and B teams took the top 2 spots, with the A collecting 8 points and B 29. Crawley AC were 3rd with 40 points.
Next race to go was the Under 17 Men where a completely different set of athletes from Goodwood came in the top 3, with Miles Waterworth (Brighton Phoenix) 1st (17.15), Alex Riley (Brighton & Hove AC) 2nd (17.30) and Charlie Wright (Lewes AC) 3rd (17.38).
Brighton & Hove were the 1st team but only just with 15 points to Brighton Phoenix’s 16.
The Under 17 women, who run the 5k together with the Under 20, Senior and Vets, saw Crawley’s Stephanie Shaw shine again clocking 20.41. She was 7th overall. Eleanor Strevens (Eastbourne) was 2nd U17 woman and Rosie Gasson (Brighton & Hove AC) 3rd. Another close call in the team scorings with Brighton & Hove collecting 20 and Crawley AC 21.
Winner of the whole race comfortably was Amy Harris (Brighton Phoenix) 20.06. Under 20 Amelia Cox (Crawley AC) was second and team mate Francesca Clayton 3rd.
Crawley’s total points was 26 on the day to Lewes’ 31 and Brighton Phoenix 44. Lewes B topped both the B division (72 points) and the Vets division
(15 points). Arena 80 Julie Briggs (V45) was the 1st Vet in the race coming 4th overall.
Brighton & Hove AC were back to winning team ways for the last race of the day, although the race itself was easily won by Brighton Phoenix talent Archie Davis (26.56). James Turner (Brighton & Hove) was 2nd (27.39) and Crawley’s Joshua Hobbs (27.56) 3rd.
Matt Geddes (Brighton Phoenix) was the 1st Under 20 in 7th and Craig Halsey (Brighton & Hove AC) 1st Vet in 6th.
Team wise, Brighton & Hove A scored 52 to top Division 1, 117 for the B team to win Division 2 and just 10 collective points to sit at the top of the Vets Division.
This is the second year Sussex has held a league fixture at Ardingly and it is proving to be a popular course. Organisation of the day was led by Haywards Heath Harriers, so a massive thank you to everyone at the club along with other Sussex AA volunteers for putting on another fantastic fixture.
For photos click here