Brighton Phoenix and Brighton & Hove Athletic Club both qualified for the National Road Relay championships at the South of England Championships at the Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Phoenix, who are county champions, fielded a strong team and had excellent results with Rob Fitzgibbon placing eighth on the tough first leg in 14:56s which was the team’s fastest leg. Max Pickard dropped to 15th in 15:51s and a cracking third leg by Ross Skelton in 15:01s lifted them to seventh. Jon Pepper took them up to fourth in 15:37s. On the penultimate leg Max Dumbrell drifted back to eighth in 15:59s and Archie Davis lifted them to seventh on the final leg in 15:28s. This was one of their highest ever team placings by finishing in 92:51s.
Brighton & Hove clocked 95:10 when filling 16th place in 95:10s and both teams are now eligible to compete in the National Road Relay championships at Mansfield in November.
In the Senior Women’s race the Arena Club led the Sussex challenge in 17th place with Hastings in 20th spot.
The Crawley U13 girls team achieved the highest placing by a Sussex team on Sunday when they filled seventh place with Brighton & Hove 21st while in the Boys U13 event Hastings finished 14th, Brighton & Hove 16th and Crawley 19th.
U15 Boys saw Crawley finish 9th, Brighton & Hove 10th and Hastings 16th.
U15 Girls saw Brighton & Hove finish16th, Hastings 18th and Brighton & Hove “B” 22nd.
U17 men: 16th Brighton & Hove, 21st Crawley.
U17 Women: 14th Brighton & Hove.
M40: 9th Brighton & Hove, 11th Hastings.
Barnes Green Half-marathon.
Neil Boniface had a cracking run in the Barnes Green Half-marathon on Sunday when he steamed well clear to take the title in 70:15s.
Veteran Boniface, who is in the throes of transferring his allegiance from Horsham Joggers to Crawley, finished more than a minute clear of, soon to be club mate, Paul Navesey who clocked 71:50s with Brighton & Hove Kevin Rojas third in 72:44s.
Sussex runners also filled the next two places with John Westlake (Crawley) clocking 73:02s and former champion and another veteran James Baker (Chichester) 74:03s.
County 3,000m champion Bernie Spannagl (Horsham) was a run-a-way winner of the 10km race in 33:11s.
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