Five Sussex runners gained Top Ten places in the National Cross-country Championships over the usual muddy Parliament Hill course at Hampstead Heath on Saturday but individual medals escaped the grip of the Sussex runners.
In the Senior Men’s race Ben Tickner led his Brighton Phoenix team into ninth team spot, one of the highest ever team placing by a Sussex Club.
Ticker himself was in line for a medal for much of the race but eventually got squeezed into a splendid fifth place. Club mates Jon Pepper and Ross Skelton also gained Top fifty placings finish 28th and 48th place.
Ryan Driscoll (Crowborough/Tonbrige) filled 77th place, Josh Guilmant (Phoenix) 114th, Howard Bristow, who led the depleted Brighton & Hove team into 49th place of the 145 clubs that completed a scoring six, 118th and Patrick Hough (Lewes) 126th.
Grace Baker (Aldershot/Hastings) did pick a medal and a gold one at that as her brilliant fourth place in the U20W race led her Aldershot team to victory.
At these championships a placing in the Top Fifty is a considerable achievement and in this U20 race Crowborough athletes Nicole Taylor and Sian Driscoll, who both run for Tonbridge both, had good runs finishing 22nd and 40th respectively.
There was a fifth place for George Pool (Hastings) in the U13B race where Leo Brewer (Lewes) placed 16th and Ethan Fincham (Worthing) 48th while Lewes finished 11th in the team event and Hastings 18th.
Joe Body (Hastings) placed sixth in the U15B race with Ben Martin (Lewes) in 4th place and Hastings finished 21st in the team race.
In the senior women’s race Emma Macready (Worthing) had a fine run to finish in tenth spot while Joscelin Lowden (Lewes) placed 63rd.
Harmony Cooper (Hastings) led the Sussex runners home in the U13G event finishing in an excellent 12th place with club mate Olivia White 24th and the Hastings team in 18th place.
Another Hastings athlete led the way in the U17W race with Sophie Markwick placing 39th while Chichester were led home by Amber Westron 74th, and with Saskia Gardam 75th, Charlotte Reading 78th and Holly Beaton 209th they finished eighth in the team event, the highest Sussex team placing on Saturday but there were only 17 clubs who completed a scoring four in this event.
In the U17B race Stephen Ferroni (Brighton & Hove) finished 42nd while Ben Golding (Crawley) led the Sussex runners in the U20M race placing 64th.
Overall better than usual results for Sussex athletes at these championships.
Record in Brighton Half-marathon.
In a race where the leaders were well spaced out it was Paul Martelletti (Run Fast) who notched up his third successive victory in the Brighton Half-marathon on Sunday Morning.
He strode through the finish at the Madeira Drive in Brighton in a record breaking 65:48s virtually one minute clear of Kevin Rojas (Brighton & Hove) who clocked a personal best of 66:46 in second place and in turn was getting on for two minutes ahead of Leonard Bett who recorded in 68:20s.
Neil Boniface (Horsham Joggers) was nearly one minute further back in fourth place in 69:05s.
Max Dumbrell (Brighton & Hove) was the next Sussex runner to finish placing seventh in 69:56s.
Followed by Jeff Pyrah (Hastings), who was the first O40 runner to finish placed ninth in 70:23s while oft times winner James Baker (Chichester) filled 13th place in 71:14s just one place ahead of Worthing’s Darryl Hards who clocked 72:39s.
With most of the leading Sussex runners giving the race a miss it was Julia Davis (Mornington) who was the first woman to finish clocking 78:26s while Emily Proto (Arena 80) took the bronze medal in the Women's race in a personal best time of 79:46s.
Karen Mudoch (Hastings) placed seventh in 88:30s.