In tough conditions at Guyang in China Grace Baker from Hastings was the fourth British runner to finish in the World Cross-country championships.
The course was fairly flat with some artificial hillocks provided to add interest but probably of more significance was that the race was altitude which no doubt had some effect on the Hasting girl who is sometimes prone to breathing problems. In a field of one hundred runners the Sussex girl finished in 82nd place.
Tough competition for Sussex Youngsters at Tonbridge.
The Saturday after the end of Term is never a good day to hold a school’s Inter-county match and there were several athletes missing from the Sussex School’s Year 7 & 8 teams as they took on the might of the South East in the Inter-county Schools Cross-country event at Tonbridge on Saturday.
A brilliant run from Joe Smith (Oakmeeds) gave Sussex their only medal of the afternoon in the pleasant undulating Sommerhill park and conditions apart from a strong breeze were pretty good for the runners.
Smith, who was runner up in the Sussex championship, ten days ago ran a well-judged race and he used his strength to good effect as he held off a strong challenge from Kent’s Archie May in the closing stages to win by four seconds in 11:12.
Finn Halloren (Steyning), who had finished fifth in the championship, was the only other Sussex runner to squeeze into the Top 20 placing an excellent fifth but the team finished in fifth place.
It is always going to be tough for Sussex to take on the might of Hampshire, Surrey, Essex and Kent and fifth place in the team events would be our rightful position but usually we manage to get the odd fourth placing and sometimes we do better.
On Saturday however the Year 8 girls were the only team to climb out of fifth place and they did well to finish fourth with the Olivias Wiseman and White managing to get Top Ten placings.
Wiseman (Bishop Luffa), who had succumbed to White (St Richards) for the County title reversed the placings at Tonbridge and finished third in 11:19, just five seconds down on race winner Amelia Willis (Hampshire) while Steyning’s Niamh Halloran also cracked the Top Twenty finishing in 19th place. Fine runs from the girls.
In the Year 7 girls race it was the bronze medallist at the Sussex race Eloise Nicholls (Dorothy Stringer) who ran her best race of the season to lead the Sussex team into fifth place by finishing 16th ahead of the Sussex champion Amelia Wright (Hurstpierpoint) who finished 20 metres behind in 19th place.
The Year 7 boys who seemed to suffer the most from absentees and they finished fifth with Tom Roberts (Downlands) leading them home in 30th place.
<<<FULL RESULTS ARE ON THE KENT SCHOOLS WEB SITE>>>