The Sussex Schools Cross-country teams set off for Liverpool at midday on Friday to compete in the English Schools Championships after several nail biting days worrying about the Coronavirus and what the Government might do.
Last minute withdrawals meant that both the Senior (U19) Boy’s and Girl’s teams will be short on numbers and last year those teams achieved Top Ten places for Sussex with the Boy’s finishing second and the Girl’s eighth.
The Intermediate (U17) Girls’ team also finished in the Top Ten, placing seventh, with Bethany Cook (Moira House) winning the title at her first attempt and she will be defending her crown at Liverpool.
In the Junior (U15) Girl’s Eleanor Strevens (Claremont) had a fine run to finish 34th last year and will certainly be looking for a Top Twenty if not a Top Ten placing in this year. Race.
In the Senior Boys race high hopes are expected of Hamish Reilly (Eastbourne College) who has moved into the Sussex Schools for his Sixth Form education but last year, running for Kent Schools, in the Intermediate age group, he qualified and ran for the English Schools team in the Schools International match. Leo Brewer (Brighton College) finished 19th in the second placed senior squad last year. He has not been seen much over the Country this season but is reputedly in good form and he could well be another Top Ten finisher though the team as such does not look quite as good as last year’s line-up but Sussex has quite a strong record in the senior boys age group.
As at the Counties Athletic Union championships last week for probably the first time since the 1980s one family will produce three siblings, all sporting the Sussex Schools vest in the English Schools Cross-country championships.
Back in the 80s Brighton & Hove’s Bristow Brothers, John and Andrew (Varndean Grammar School) and Paul (Dorothy Stringer) all ran for Sussex Schools in the same English Schools Championships.
This year the Yellings from Brighton & Hove will be represented in three races with twins, Eadie and Henry competing in the U17 age group and Dulcie, who is also the 2019 Sussex and South of England U13 inter-counties javelin champion and British U13 javelin record holder, in the under 15 race. They all attend Varndean School.