Gold for Bethany – Silver for Senior women

Brilliant running from Bethany Cook and the senior women’s and U13 Girl’s teams highlighted the Sussex performances in the South of England Inter-county Championships at Horspath, Oxford on Saturday.

Cook set the Sussex squad off to a fine start taking control of the U13 Girl’s race virtually from the start. This stylish youngster put more than fifty metres between herself and Anwen Thomas (Middlesex) for a wonderful victory.

Her inspired running was not lost on the rest of the team and Rebecca Losh had an excellent run to finish in 11^th place and Erika Body backed up well in 23^rd place while Lacey Fowler completed the Sussex Scoring four in 37^th place to give Sussex a fine fourth team spot behind Surrey, Kent and Middlesex.

It was not until the end of the afternoon that the senior women’s team were able to top that team placing when, despite the absence of leading runners Emma Macready and Grace Baker they finished an excellent second behind Surrey.

Making a fine return to form after four years of struggles through injury and studies Emma Dixon ran one of her best ever races to lead the team home in a brilliant seventh place in 21:35s ahead of Nicole Taylor who ran well to finish 12^th in 21:45s.

Caroline Hoyte followed up her fine run in Stanmer Park to place 16^th in 22:22s and Issy Coomber, who had and off form run, to close the team in 20^th place in 22:36s.

Several times in recent years Sussex has failed to complete a scoring team but this year Helen Fuller led home a “B” team in 21^st place that placed 9^th.

The next best team placing came from the U15 boys who had also lost their top runner when Joe Smith had to withdraw through a last minute injury.

Ethan Fincham and Leo Brewer both had good runs a make the top twenty placings in 8^th and 14^th place while George Pool placed 33^rd and Joe Martin 40^th to fill fifth team place.

The U20 women’s team of Tara Bage 16^th, Kennagh Marsh 22^nd, Chloe Pollard 30th and Katy Peters 41^st placed sixth in the team event while both the U17 teams placed seventh with Josh Eeles 13^th, Will Broom 21^st Tomer Tarragano 37^th and Leo Stallard 46^th making up the men’s scoring four and Olivia Lyon-Monk 29^th, Naomi Fonteyn 30^th, Grace Wills 38^th and Abigail Hughes 44th scoring for the women’s team.

The U15 girls were led home with a fine run in sixth place by Olivia Wiseman to place eighth team with Maya Ramnarine 20^th, Harmony Cooper 50^th and Alice Wright 2^nd while a depleted U13 boys struggled into 14^th spot. Jonas Judah finished 39^th, Carlos Nietoparr 45^th, Joseph Collier 56^th and Joseph Dobson 71^st.

Ethan Scott, who has been dominating the U13 age group in the Sussex league events for East Grinstead lives over the border in Surrey and finished a fine sixth for them despite the fact that he will still be young enough to run in the same age group next year.

If you have any queries or want more information regarding this post, please Email Reg Hook.