Sussex runners gained a team and an individual bronze medals in the Inter-county 20-mile event which was incorporated into the Essex Championships at Langham on Sunday.
Excellent results for both the ladies and men in our first venture to this inter-counties invitation event. In foul conditions at the start, with torrential rain and gusty winds over a testing, undulating course, our men and ladies both secured team bronze. The men were led home by James Turner in 5th place with a time of 1:53:19, followed by Darryl Hards 8th in 1:56:33 and Neil Smith 17th in 1:58:07. The cumulative time of 5:47:59 being just 2 mins off Kent in Silver.
In the ladies race we had a splendid individual bronze for the in-form Helen Buller with a time of 2:15:19, followed by Alissa Ellis and Tara Shanahan in 8th and 9th place respectively with times of 2:21:14 and 2:22:10. This resulting in a cumulative time of 6:58:43, just 5:54 off the gold medal winning time by Kent Ladies. With 4 to run but 3 to score our 4th runner home was the brave Emily Proto, who after an initial strong start that saw her well up the field, she unfortunately developed very tight hamstrings after 9 miles and was forced to slow up, but for the sake of the team resolutely continued to the finish in case one of the other girls dropped out, a great team performance from all concerned.
Tom Ulliott
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