Sussex athletes made history at the weekend taking the first ever senior men’s team medal at the National Inter-counties Cross Country Champs.
The team won a fantastic bronze at the prestigious annual event, which was held at Prestwold Hall, Loughborough, on Saturday.
They were led home by a phenomenal Tom Evans (Lewes), who himself also took the individual bronze medal in 38.15 improving on last year's 9th place.
Few senior runners have previously won medals at these championships but both Eric Weir, before the war, and Steve Ovett, when still with Brighton and Hove AC, did win the title.
Also in the scoring men’s team on Saturday was Jack Leitch (WDH) in 14th (39.53), Kevin Moore (B&H) 25th (40.24), Jamie Knapp (B&H) 33rd (40.45), Simon Heath (Phx) 78th (42.12) and William Cork (B&H) 103rd (42.38).
The senior men’s race was the last of the day, but there had been no shortage of high standard racing to enjoy beforehand. 
Kicking off the races were the under 20 men, where Sussex had seven top 100 finishers, with Brighton and Hove’s Tomer Tarragano near the winning pack in 5th place (31.59). Next up was William Broom (Chi) in 24th (33.19), Ned Potter 49th (Chi) in 34.22 and Samuel Leitch (WDH) 71st in 35.35. The team were 8th overall.
This race was followed by the under 13 girls, which with 306 competitors saw the biggest field of the day. Dulcie Yelling (B&H) topped the Sussex runners over the line in 58th, Rihanon Daniels (Crawley) 70th and Esme Stephenson (Lewes) 90th.
With 6 finishers in the top 100 (out of 257) the Sussex senior women’s team were in fine form. Tonbridge athlete, Nicole Taylor, was just 
outside the top ten in 13th (45.32), Emma Footman (WDH) 32nd in 47.11 just in front of Emma Dixon (Bodywork) 34th in 47.16. Bethany Garland (Chi) 60th in 49.02, Leah Harris (WDH) 82nd in 50.04 and Dani Tarleton (A80) in 50.22.
Next to set off were the Under 15 boys. Crawley’s Luke Newton had a strong run finishing 39th (15.36) to Henry Yelling (B&H) in 83rd (16.03) and Charlie Polton (Bodyworks) 102nd in 16.14.
Although the weather on the day was pleasant, as a result of weeks of heavy rainfall, conditions underfoot were extremely heavy for all runners. 
By the time the Under 17 women set off the ground had got even more churned making it a gruelling 5k. Several athletes succumbed to this and many collapsed as the race progressed.
This didn’t stop Bodyworks’ Bethany Cook who dug in to take the silver medal (matching last year’s achievement) in 21.10. Eleven places behind was Harriet Bloor (Lewes) who had the race of her season to finish 13th in 22.16. Milly Dickinson (Phx) was 73rd in 23.46 and Lois Dooley (B&H) 78th in 24.02. The team were 5th overall.
Following this race was the Under 17 men where Isaac Elam (Has) finished in 62nd place, Thomas Kimber (Craw) 89th and Adam Dray (Lewes) 98th.
Hastings Runner, Finlay Goodman, had a brilliant run in the Under 13 boys coming 15th out of 293. The next Sussex athlete through was Thomas Matthews (B&H) with Corbin Bailey (Phx) in 136th and James Polton 145th. 
Jennifer Dunstan (HBS) was the only Sussex finisher in the Under 20 women coming in 95th.
Amelia Cox (Craw) led the Under 15 Girls team home in 60th (18.30) with Daisy Burton (Bodyworks) 68th (18.40) and Eadie Yelling in 86th in 18.56.
A total of 2576 athletes finished the races on Saturday.