What A Weekend For Sussex

Two golds, three silvers and three bronzes marked a phenomenal day at the SEAA Inter County Cross Country Championships at the weekend.

Hundreds of the regions top cross country runners gathered to compete at the new venue at Horsenden Hill.

Sussex took full teams in age categories from under 13 up to senior women.

One of the main highlights came in the under 15 boys where in form Byron Roberts (Eastbourne) took Gold in fine fashion five seconds clear of the next opponent and after a fall.

This topped what was a magnificent Sussex performance across the board with the team scooping gold and 10 of our athletes finishing in the top 45 out of 126.

The four A team scoring under 15 boys were Taylor Thom Watts (Brighton & Hove) in 5^th, Oliver Goodman (Brighton & Hove) in 8^th and Joe Stewart (Chichester) 15^th.

Not far behind was Luca De Giovanni (Portsmouth) in 20^th, George Urben (Brighton & Hove)  30^th, Harry Chapman (Lewes) 31^st, Joaquin Perez (Brighton & Hove) 36^th, Max Gayle (Chichester) 37^th and Samuel Gill (Brighton & Hove) 45^th.

Another top individual performance on the day came from HYAC’s Isabella Buchanan placing 2^nd in the under 15 girls. The team were also rewarded with bronze with Isabella Lendrum (Chichester) crossing the line in a fabulous fifth, Hannah Mervyn-Thomas (Brighton & Hove) 21^st and Scarlett Dixon (HYAC) 25^th.

The under 17 women also scooped team silver led by Chichester’s Molly Smithers winning individual bronze. Other scorers here were Freda Pearce (Eastbourne) in 8^th, Elodie Hill (Chichester) 9^th and Eva Winton (Brighton & Hove) 31^st.

Fin Lumber Fry (Eastbourne) battled hard for a bronze medal in the under 17 men’s contest with team mate Freddy Boniface (Horsham) the next Sussex athlete to cross the line in 22^nd.

In the under 20 women’s category Esme Stephenson (Brighton & Hove) finished 7^th, Emily Carman (Worthing) 9^th, Greta Hunter (Phoenix) 15^th and Ela Pemberton (Chichester) 16^th collectively winning silver.

Kathleen Law (Brighton & Hove) and Darja Knotkova-Hanley (Lewes) were the highest placing senior women in 25^th and 28^th.

Earlier, the day had kicked off with the under 13 races.

The girls’ team had four top 30 finishers and only just missed out on a medal coming 4^th.

Emmy Pemberton (Chichester) in 12^th, Elzie Ortiz (Brighton & Hove) 16^th, Amelie Adams (Chichester) 22^nd and Tera Buckland (HYAC) 26^th.

Benjamin Sorrell (Brighton & Hove) crossed the line in 20^th in the under 13 boys’ 3K race with Horsham’s Hugo Wrapson next in 23^rd and then Brighton Phoenix’s Isaac Bowley in 27^th.

Well done to all the athletes who competed.

SEAA Masters Cross Country Championships

Taking place on the same day were the SEAA Masters Cross Country Championships where several Sussex based clubs enjoyed successes.

Brighton & Hove’s Zared Arasaretnam-Hale won both the overall race and his M40 age category, whilst team mate Howard Bristow was third overall and first M50. Brighton & Hove took team bronzes in both the M50-59 and  M60+.

Eastbourne were celebrating by the end of the women’s race with Jenny Brown taking gold in the W55 age category (6^th overall), Sue Fry 2^nd W50 (12^th overall) and Liz Lumber 5^th W50 (28^th overall). Collectively the W50-59 won gold.

Elspeth Turner

Meanwhile at the Florence Marathon on Sunday, Horsham Blue Stars’ Elspeth clocked 2hr54m54s achieving a new GB and European masters W60 record.