Chichester’s “Flying Doctor” Chris Zablocki flew the flag for Sussex at the South of England Cross-country championships at Parliament Hill on Saturday although strictly he is not a Sussex athlete.
Zablocki, who won the first of this season’s Sussex League race at Goodwood back in October, is attending a year’s course at Chichester University and while there he is training hard in an effort to make the USA marathon team for the Rio Olympics. Over the tough muddy course he led the chasing group behind Aldershot’s Johnny Hay who romped away with the senior 15km title in 49:08, virtually one minute clear of the Chichester runner who clocked 50:07. Chris Smith, who runs second claim for Haywards Heath but is not Sussex qualified, also put up a fine run to finish sixth in 50:27. County champion Finn McNally (Brighton Phoenix) was not comfortable on the day and finished a disappointing 15th in 51:41 some nine places ahead of club mate Jon Pepper who clocked 52:56. Brighton & Hove’s Howard Bristow and Max Dumbrell had steady runs finishing 33rd and 50th respectively in 53:25 and 54:08 respectively. It is quiet an achievement to make the top one hundred places in this race and Paul Navesey (Crawley) finished 56th, R.Bookman (Hastings) 59, Jamie Baker (Chichester) 71st and Dino Evangelides and James Turner Brighton & Hove 86th and 99th respectively. In the team event Brighton & Hove finished a commendable 11th.
Worthing’s Emma Macready ran into a useful sixth place in the senior race clocking 31:06 just half-a-minute behind the winner but Sussex support in this race was very thin. Grace Baker (Aldershot/Hastings) one of the high hopes to get an individual medal in the U20 women’s race was under the weather but did well to finish in fourth place and came home with a gold medal as she led the Aldershot team to victory. There was also a fine run from Brighton & Hove Martha Coyle in the U20 race who clocked 24:07 to finish in eighth place while Rosie Ellis (Chichester) placed 18th in 24:50 and club mate Charlotte Reading 34th and Kennagh Marsh (Crawley) just missed a “Top Fifty” place in 51st.
Jack Leitch (Worthing) was the first Sussex runner to finish in the U20 men’s race placing 41st while in the U17 age group Brodie Denholm (Brighton & Hove) was the first Sussex runner to finish placing 26th in the men’s race with George Crocker (Crawley) in 64th place.
Three runners made the Top fifty in the women’s race with Olivia and Sophie Dowle (Crawley/Surrey) finishing 41st and 50th and Karina Bennett (Chichester) 43rd and leading her team to ninth place.
Darja Knotkova-Hanley (Haywards Heath) led the Sussex U15s home in 43rd place with Ben Martin (Lewes) and Tomer Tarragano (Brighton & Hove) having another fine battle in the Boy’s race placing 20th and 22nd and Joe Smith (Crawley) 29th and Leo Brewer (Lewes) 32nd while the Lewes team finished 13th. Isaac Elam (Hastings) placed 9th in the U13 event with Alex Brothwell (Brighton Phoenix) 31st, C.Nieto (Hastings) 39th, J.Gardner (Lewes) 41st one place ahead of Nathan Buckeridge (Crawley) and fellow Crawley athlete N.Hanslow 48th.
Lewes finished 14th in the team event with Hastings 16th and Crawley 17th.
The Girls race saw Hastings Maya Ramarine, Amelie Primdal and Erika Brody finish 22nd, 30th, and 49th help the Hastings team into ninth place with Brighton & Hove 18th.