Sussex League titles were well spread after last Saturday’s final races in the snow, well not really snow that laid, at Hickstead.
The nine team titles makes this series of race a little more important than normal competition and there were also sixteen individual gold medals presented this year as one, the M40 men’s title was shared between Brighton & Hove’s Howard Bristow, the County champion and Haywards Heath’s James Skinner, which meant that most Sussex clubs would have gone home with a least one gold medal to their name.
Crawley, Hastings, Lewes, Brighton Phoenix and Worthing won two medals apiece and Arena 80, Haywards Heath and Chichester won three while Brighton & Hove took home six.
Brighton & Hove managed to retain the senior men’s team title after a scare with not Brighton Phoenix who led into the final event but the up and coming Haywards Heath team who totalled, over the season, 451 points to the winner’s 424 with Phoenix in third team spot with 457 points.
Haywards Heath also supplied the winner of the senior race though Chris Smith, who has been attending these League events over the years this is the first time he has completed three of the necessary races to qualify for the title. Smith scored a minimum number of three points just two points clear of Brighton & Hove’s Jamie Knapp.
In the senior women’s race Lewes galloped away with the team title from oft times League and County team champions Arena 80 while, despite losing to Brighton & Hove’s Helena Tobin on the day, Izzy Coomber took the individual title from team mate Gina Wilson 4 points to 12.
At the lower end of the age groups Ethan Scott from East Grinstead went the whole hog won all four of this year’s U13 races (Individuals are scored on their three best runs) winning the title with three points from Crawley’s Dylan Hanslow who has chased him home in all four races with Worthing taking the team title.
The U13 girls’ title went to Rebecca Losh (Brighton & Hove) also completed four races with two wins and two seconds to score four points to Hastings’s Erika Boy’s nine points and Losh led her Club to victory.
The U15s saw Maya Ramnarine (Hastings) repeating Losh’s example winning from Phoenix’s Alice Wright with Hastings taking the team title and Joe Smith (Crawley) taking the title from Saturday’s winner George Pool (Hasting) with Crawley also taking the team title.
The U17 boys have their own race while the girls run with the senior women and here Chichester won both team events while Brighton & Hove’s Thomas Eames and Olivia Lyon-Monk won the individual titles from Joe Body (Hastings) and Annabel Morton (Horsham Blue Star).
Full results are on the website.
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