Southern Road Relay Championships:
The Lewes Athletic Club’s senior women’s team had a tremendous result in the Southern Counties Six stage Road Relay championship at Milton Keynes on Sunday.
With alternate short and long stages, Emma Navesey had a steady run on the first leg, which is always a tough leg, to finish 11th in 17:49 but a brilliant run by Harriet Bloor who lifted the team up to second place in 29:23, a time that was to prove the third fastest long leg of the day.
For a brief moment on the third leg, Emil Proto took the Sussex team into the lead in 18:12 but was unable to hold off the eventual winners, Cambridge Harriers until the handover.
Ruby Whyte-Wilding clocked 31:37 on leg four before Darja Knotkhova clocked 18:45 on the penultimate leg and Lizzie Keep brought the Lewes club home in a magnificent fourth place in 18:01, one of the best ever places for a Sussex team in this event.
Schools International:
Sussex Schools athletes Finlay Goodman and Miles Waterworth both won gold medals for the English Schools team when the competed in the Schools Home International match at Pembrey Country Park in Wales last week end.
Both competed for the English Schools teams in the recently introduced four times 1500 metres mixed relay.
Finlay had been selected for the junior team following his tenth place in the English Cross-country championships in Kent a couple of weeks back. He led the English team off and handed over in the lead a placing that the rest of the English squad held until the finish.
Miles was a last minute replacement for the Intermediate Boys team and like Finlay he took the opening leg and set the English off in the lead, which they retained throughout the rest of the race.
Schools Year 7/8 Inter-Counties:
The Sussex School’s Year 7 and 8 teams were also in action last weekend at Writtle, near Chelmsford, Essex in the South East Inter County match. The home County won all four of the team events although the Sussex Year seven Boys squad gave them a good run for their money providing the silver and bronze individual medallists. They also took second team spot, which is a pretty rare achievement for Sussex in this event that involves the much stronger surrounding Counties of Surrey, Kent and Hampshire as well as Essex.
George Gilbert led the Sussex challenge placing second, just two seconds behind of Surrey’s Thomas Wharton with Fin Lumber-Fry, the Sussex champion a further seven seconds back in third place. Sammy Harkin in 13th place, Ben Wright 19th, Harry Pawsey 20th and Nate Donougher 22nd completing the scoring six.
The year 7 girls’ team placed sixth in their event being led home by Bibi Webb in 12th place.
The Boys Year 8 just missed getting amongst the medals finishing in fourth team spot with Saul Bennett leading the Sussex team home in 11th place. The team was completed by Cobet Ansell 21st, Joseph Denslow 24th, Harry Smeeton 26th, Josh Hardland 28th and Alex Roberts 32nd.
It was fifth team place for the Year 8 girl’s teams with Jennifer Klein 14th and Astrid Facius 21st leading the team.
Sussex Road Relay Championships:
This coming Saturday will see the Sussex Road Relay championships back on the Calendar after a break of three years. This had been the first of the Sussex events to be cancelled in the spring of 2019 at the start of the lockdown. The event will also be moved to a new venue, their fifth, since the inauguration of the event in 1964.
The event started in 1964 following a challenge event between the Horsham Blue Star and Brighton A.C Senior men’s teams in 1963. They were the top middle distance clubs in the County.
It was held on the roads between Horsham and Brighton but did not last long as the road conditions on point-to-point races became dangerous.
It was several years before Chichester’s Phil Baker got permission to hold in on a Sunday at Goodwood Aerodrome when both sexes and all age groups were held.
In recent years, until Lockdown in 2019, it had been held in the traffic free grounds of Christ’s Hospital. Unfortunately, a suitable date could not be found for this year’s race and the venue has been switched to Preston Park, Brighton.
The Young Athletes will race over a lap of One mile while the runners over 15 years will complete two laps.
There has been a couple of amendments to the original timetable and the first race will be the U11s at 11.15 the senior U20 and U17 men at 13.45 and the Masters Women’s race will have a separate race at 15.30.
Southern Road Relay Championships:
The Lewes Athletic Club’s senior women’s team had a tremendous result in the Southern Counties Six stage Road Relay championship at Milton Keynes on Sunday.
With alternate short and long stages, Emma Navesey had a steady run on the first leg, which is always a tough leg, to finish 11th in 17:49 but a brilliant run by Harriet Bloor who lifted the team up to second place in 29:23, a time that was to prove the third fastest long leg of the day.
For a brief moment on the third leg, Emil Proto took the Sussex team into the lead in 18:12 but was unable to hold off the eventual winners, Cambridge Harriers until the handover.
Ruby Whyte-Wilding clocked 31:37 on leg four before Darja Knotkhova clocked 18:45 on the penultimate leg and Lizzie Keep brought the Lewes club home in a magnificent fourth place in 18:01, one of the best ever places for a Sussex team in this event.
Schools International:
Sussex Schools athletes Finlay Goodman and Miles Waterworth both won gold medals for the English Schools team when the competed in the Schools Home International match at Pembrey Country Park in Wales last week end.
Both competed for the English Schools teams in the recently introduced four times 1500 metres mixed relay.
Finlay had been selected for the junior team following his tenth place in the English Cross-country championships in Kent a couple of weeks back. He led the English team off and handed over in the lead a placing that the rest of the English squad held until the finish.
Miles was a last minute replacement for the Intermediate Boys team and like Finlay he took the opening leg and set the English off in the lead, which they retained throughout the rest of the race.
Schools Year 7/8 Inter-Counties:
The Sussex School’s Year 7 and 8 teams were also in action last weekend at Writtle, near Chelmsford, Essex in the South East Inter County match. The home County won all four of the team events although the Sussex Year seven Boys squad gave them a good run for their money providing the silver and bronze individual medallists. They also took second team spot, which is a pretty rare achievement for Sussex in this event that involves the much stronger surrounding Counties of Surrey, Kent and Hampshire as well as Essex.
George Gilbert led the Sussex challenge placing second, just two seconds behind of Surrey’s Thomas Wharton with Fin Lumber-Fry, the Sussex champion a further seven seconds back in third place. Sammy Harkin in 13th place, Ben Wright 19th, Harry Pawsey 20th and Nate Donougher 22nd completing the scoring six.
The year 7 girls’ team placed sixth in their event being led home by Bibi Webb in 12th place.
The Boys Year 8 just missed getting amongst the medals finishing in fourth team spot with Saul Bennett leading the Sussex team home in 11th place. The team was completed by Cobet Ansell 21st, Joseph Denslow 24th, Harry Smeeton 26th, Josh Hardland 28th and Alex Roberts 32nd.
It was fifth team place for the Year 8 girl’s teams with Jennifer Klein 14th and Astrid Facius 21st leading the team.
Sussex Road Relay Championships:
This coming Saturday will see the Sussex Road Relay championships back on the Calendar after a break of three years. This had been the first of the Sussex events to be cancelled in the spring of 2019 at the start of the lockdown. The event will also be moved to a new venue, their fifth, since the inauguration of the event in 1964.
The event started in 1964 following a challenge event between the Horsham Blue Star and Brighton A.C Senior men’s teams in 1963. They were the top middle distance clubs in the County.
It was held on the roads between Horsham and Brighton but did not last long as the road conditions on point-to-point races became dangerous.
It was several years before Chichester’s Phil Baker got permission to hold in on a Sunday at Goodwood Aerodrome when both sexes and all age groups were held.
In recent years, until Lockdown in 2019, it had been held in the traffic free grounds of Christ’s Hospital. Unfortunately, a suitable date could not be found for this year’s race and the venue has been switched to Preston Park, Brighton.
The Young Athletes will race over a lap of One mile while the runners over 15 years will complete two laps.
There has been a couple of amendments to the original timetable and the first race will be the U11s at 11.15 the senior U20 and U17 men at 13.45 and the Masters Women’s race will have a separate race at 15.30.