The change of direction of the course for last Saturday’s Sussex Road Relay championships at Christ’s Hospital seems not to have affected the runners and although no course records were broken (six succumbed last year) a couple were approached.
The races were thought to be one of the best of these championships though a strong wind, more than the change of direction, were considered to have greater effect on the times.
In the senior women’s race Phoenix’s Beth Kidger was just seven seconds adrift of Grace Baker’s (Hastings) 2014 record of 10:50 while in the U15 G event Bethany Cook was also seven seconds adrift of the home club’s Johanna Spannagl’s 5:46s clocking in 2009.
The eleven races, however, were dominated by Brighton Clubs who won all but two events.
Bodyworks took the U15 Girls race and Hastings won the U15 Boys while the Arena 80 Club won both the W40 and the W50 team events.
Brighton Phoenix won both senior titles, the men’s title for the eighth successive time, while Brighton & Hove took no less than five titles, both the U13 Girls and Boys races and all three Men’s M40, M50, and M60 veteran’s crowns.
There could be further course changes next year and course are being explored to hold the senior courses inside the grounds of College. If possible, it would avoid the public highway for part of the current course and alleviate this year’s problems in obtaining a road race licence.
Pauline Rich from the Run Academy Worthing won two silver medals in the European Masters championships in Madrid last month.
Competing in the 3000m event on the 19th she clocked 14:47.01s in the W70 age group while five days later she clocked 27:43s in the W70 5,000m cross-country championship.
Charlie De’Vall Grice gets down to business on the Gold Coast on Friday when he lines up for his 1,500 metres heats for a place in Saturday’s final at the Commonwealth Games.
At Glasgow Grice had finished seventh in the final four years ago and is aiming to improve on that placing but he will have a tough battle against his two Scots rivals, Chris O’Hare and Jake Wightman, and the journey to the final will be no pushover. Statistically the Brighton Phoenix athlete is eighth fastest in the field, behind his Scots rivals but he is a cagey performer and I will be surprised if we are not able to root for him in Saturday’s final. His heat will be at 2.35pm our time.
Southern League: This Saturday sees the start of the League season when the first round matches of the Southern Athletics League are held at various venues throughout the Southern Counties.
Crawley in Division one are headed to Stevenage for their opening match while Eastbourne, in Division 2E, will be at Tonbridge.
The rest of the Sussex teams are in the Divisions, 3SE where East Grinstead, Hasting and Haywards Heath/Lewes will compete and in 3SW Brighton & Hove, who are the only Sussex Club with a home fixture this weekend and they will host Horsham and Chichester and Worthing will also compete in 3SW matches.
Results, particularly team results, are normally very late to be published and it will be at least mid-week before they appear.
Team managers could help if they would email me their own match results when they receive them.
Brighton Marathon: Runners will be setting off at 9.45 on Sunday morning and many leading Sussex runners will be aiming to feature in the leading places at both this and the BM 10km, which starts at 9.00.
If you have any queries or want more information regarding this post, please Email Reg Hook.