Great day for Sussex at Oxford -UPDATE

Two brilliant victories for Almi Nerurkar and Bethany Cook, another second team spot for the senior women and third place for the Under 17 men highlighted a successful for Sussex athletes at Horspath, Oxford on Saturday.

Almi Nerurkar was the undoubted turn up for the day. County and Sussex Schools U17 champion showed a clean pair of heels to her rivals to record an excellent victory probably about ten seconds over Jessica Mitchell (Essex). Lizzie Clarke also had an excellent run finishing fifth while Naomi Fonteyn and Alex Richer both turned in steady performances in 22^nd and 23^rd positions.

We are still waiting for the results to be published for this race but it is believed that the Sussex team took third team place..

It was Bethany Cook, the reigning U13 champion, who also raised eyebrows as she moved up an age to the U15s and trounced the field to romp to victory in 14:29 some ten seconds clear of Kent’s Morgan Squibb.

With Lois Dooley and Rebecca Losh, who is also first year in this age group, placing 26^th and 35^th and Olivia Toms 54^th the team did well to finish sixth.

The U13 Boys team went one place better with Nicholas Hollan-Ellidge having an inspired run when just missing a medal in battle for third place in 10:27, the same time as the third runner.

Henry Yelling 20^th, Calum Puxty 35^th and Jonas Judah 39^th completed the scoring four.

Even better was the third placed Boys U17 team, despite the absence of Thomas Eames who has dominated the age group in Sussex this year. George Pool had a fine run to finish in 11^th place with Will Broom just one place behind in 12^th while Joe Smith placed 20^th and Tomer Tarragano 25^th to complete the team.

The best team result of the afternoon however was in the senior women’s race and again it was without their top athlete, County champion Nicole Taylor, who was unwell.

Nevertheless there was a tremendous run from Johanna Spannagl, who certainly had her best race since returning to competition at the beginning of the season, with seventh place in what was by no means a soft field. Another “come back kid” Chloe Cook, Bethany’s big sister also had a fine run to finish twelfth and there were fine runs all round as Isabella Murray finishing in 17^th place and Leah Harris closed in the team in 26^th position.

For the second year in succession the Sussex women finished second in the team race, albet well behind Surrey's 15 points with 62 points just one point ahead of Essex, a splendid result.

The U13 Girls team placed seventh with Eleanor Strevens leading the scoring four home in 18^th place, Daisy Burton 22^nd, Eadie Yelling 26^th and Ruby Wilson 53^rd, while Liam Dunne led the U15 Boys into eighth place placing 20^th supported by Atticus Mohapi-Dobouny 27^th, Ethan Ward 35th and Bradley Stanger 40^th.

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