Sussex athletes will be in action in Birmingham and Hampstead Heath on Saturday and in Brighton and Hove on Sunday in a mix of Track, Cross-country and Road running.
Star Sussex middle distance runners Charlie Grice (Phoenix) and Lee Emanuel (Sheffield/Hastings) will clash over 1,500m in the Sainsburys Indoor “Grand Prix” at Birmingham on Saturday and this will bring the reigning National 1,500m champion, Grice, in a head to head clash with the 2014 champion, Emanuel. It is not only these two however as arch 1500m rival Chris O’Hare is also in the line-up as are a group of Kenyan and American runners.
The clash between National Cross-country championships at Parliament Hill Fields, which is an area of Hampstead Heath, and Brighton however will affect the support from Sussex in the senior event at the cross-country championships.
Brighton & Hove City will be taking a depleted team to the “Nationals” but, as we go to press it is not known whether any other Sussex teams will be making the trip for the senior men’s race.
Most Sussex interest is likely to come in the younger age groups with Grace Baker (Aldershot/Hastings) looking for a top ten placing in the U20W event and maybe hoping for a gold medal in the team event.
Stephen Ferroni (Brighton & Hove), who dropped out of the “Southern” at Stanmer Park a few weeks back could look to a top ten placing in the U17M but he may yet decide to miss the mud of Parliament Hill and look more to the “Inter-counties” championships a couple of weeks ahead while in the U15 races Almi Nerurkar (Phoenix) and Joe Body (Hastings) are expected the lead the Sussex runners home as are Hasting’s Georgie Pool (Boys) and Harmony Cooper (Girls) in the U13 championships.
On Sunday the “Brighton Half-marathon” has an early morning start on Sunday morning starting at 9.00am on the Madeira Drive where the winner will finish just over one hour later.
Sportshall Sussex U13 and U15 teams will be taking part in the Sportshall Regional Final at Olympos in Burgess Hill on Sunday. Thirty eight young athletes have been competing since November in the Horsham and Worthing Leagues. The top performers have been selected to compete against seven other county teams from across the South East of England.