By Tom Ulliott (Team Manager)
Sunday 16th Saw another fabulous quality inter county match within the Brighton 10k. This match was first staged in 2018 and draws top quality runners, representing their county from the south east corner of England. On Sunday we had teams from Essex, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Kent, Cambridge and of course ourselves here in Sussex. Three of the counties even fielding B teams, so all in all over 70 elite runners vying for both team and individual honours! Trophies are awarded for top male team of 3, top female team of 3 and top mixed team of 6, comprising 3 male and 3 female runners and competition is always hot
In the 2024 edition Sussex has a clean sweep in all three team categories so this was always going to be a tough act to follow in 2025, and so it proved as Essex stormed to victory in both the men’s and mixed team categories. Indeed, so strong were Essex that they took 50 seconds off the all-time record for the winning male team, previously held by the Sussex squad of 2024, so something for Sussex to aim for in 2026!! Essex also took the all-time record for the mixed team, also previously held by Sussex in 2024, this time improving the record by just 18 seconds.
The men’s team race was not really in doubt as Essex had the 1st and 2nd men over the line as well as their 3rd man finishing 4th. James Turner from Sussex did spoil the individual clean sweep for Essex by finishing in 3rd place in a personal best time of 30:19, so very close to the magical sub-30 min clocking and ranks him 6th fastest ever individual male in the inter county match. James was backed up by Reuban Hoyte and Ross Skelton (31:14 and 31:18 respectively) which was enough to secure team silver for the Sussex men, so a great result.
The ladies’ race was a different story however, as here it was a very close race with Hampshire coming out on top, but just 10 seconds ahead of Sussex, so extremely tight. Hampshire being led home by Kate Estlea-Morris who ran 33:03, the fastest individual time by a female in the inter county match since its inception in 2018. Sussex were led home by Hollie Parker who has had an outstanding season on the track with big personal bests over 400m, 800m, 1500m and the mile as well as a personal best of 15:52 on the road over 5k. However, this was, to my knowledge, her first 10k and what a superb run she had to finish 2nd in a time of 34:05, which is the 6th fastest ever individual female time in the inter county match. Hollie was joined by Ruby Whyte-Wilding and Laura Smith (34:50 and 36:34 respectively), Ruby’s time being a big personal best and Laura’s very close to her best.
In both the men’s and ladies’ team it’s important to have a 4th runner their to support the team in case of injury during the race and we were lucky to have Amy Harris, stepping in just half an hour before the start to fill a gap and recording a very good time of 37:12, and in the men’s team we had Brandon Liau finishing in 32:25, which was a personal best time for him.
In the mixed team race, based on the cumulative time for our 6 scoring runners, named above, we were a very close 2nd place behind winners Essex, the margin being just 41 seconds. So strong was Sussex’s performance here that despite ‘only’ finishing 2nd mixed team their time ranks them 3rd fastest in the history of this match.
Although we here in Sussex have always fielded B teams in this event, primarily to raise the profile of elite running here in the county but also to give valuable experience to more of our best runners, the other counties have not fielded B teams. This year we decided to introduce team medals for the first B teams to finish in both the male and female categories and this prompted both Essex and Hampshire to also put out B teams. This was something of a success as there was a nice battle in both races.
In the men’s race Essex B beat Sussex B by a margin of almost 4 minutes but not as fast as the 2024 Sussex B team’s time. In the ladies’ race Sussex B reversed this by coming home almost 3 minutes ahead of Essex B and setting the fastest ever ladies B team time since the first race in 2018. The men’s trio being Ben Mccallion (32:52), Luke Brown (33:05) and Zared Arasaretnam-Hale (33:10), both Ben and Luke setting new personal best times. 
In the ladies’ race we had Masie Trafford (36:11), Flaminia Gold (36:43) and Suzy Rushforth (37:17), Maisie’s time placing her 8th lady in the entire race and her fastest time since 2019 and becoming a mum in the last couple of years, so a great return to form. Flaminia’s time as a new personal best by almost 2 minutes and remarkably at age 50 Suzy’s time was also a personal best!
Again we had the comfort of a 4th runner in each B team and these were Arun Knursheed (34:35) for the men and Emma Footman 38:15 for the ladies.
A great morning of racing and I must say a big thank you to Gavin Stephens of Runbase Events for all the help and support given to enable us to stage this race within a race.