Wonderful Day At Nottingham For Sussex

A wonderful day for Sussex at the National Inter Counties Cross Country Championships saw a bronze medal for Ava James and 6 top 10 ten team places including silver for the Under 13 boys.

With a change of venue to Wollaton Park in Nottingham, there were concerns in the build up days of possible water logging.

Thankfully conditions on the day were perfect with gentle winds, light mud under foot and even some glimpses of sunshine.

Lewes AC’s Ava James has had a tremendous cross country season and this continued in the under 17 women’s race on Saturday.

Clocking 17.09, she comfortably secured the 3^rd position – highly impressive for first year in the age group.

She led her team to 8^th overall, with other scorers Esme Stephenson (Lewes) 39^th (18.26), Rosie Gasson (Brighton & Hove) 52^nd (18.36) and Anya Barrett (Chichester) 70^th (18.53).

With all four scorers in the top 40 (out of 297 athletes who completed the race), it was no surprise the under 13 boys placed 2^ndoverall.  Led by Luca De Giovanni (Portsmouth) in 12^th (10.56), Byron Roberts (Eastbourne) in 14^th (11.02), Taylor Thom Watts (Brighton & Hove) in 19^th (11.06) and Oliver Goodman (Brighton & Hove) 37^th (11.16).

Races had kicked off with the under 20 men where Alexander Sproston (Crawley) was the highest Sussex finisher in 12^th and Henry Yelling (Brighton & Hove) 24^th.  Jamie McDowell (Haywards Heath) was 75^th and Jonathan Martin (Phoenix) 100^th.

This was followed by the under 13 girls, which saw the biggest field of the day with 298 runners. Sussex finished in 10^th place with the four scorers being Amelie Whitehouse (Crawley) 35^th, Elise Aston (Worthing) 38^th, Florence Tewkesbury (HY) 73^rd and Gracie Fox (Brighton & Hove) 81^st.

Next up were the senior women, where the team placed 6^th (one of its highest ever) with Rachel Gifford 52^nd, Jess Corbett (Brighton & Hove) 60^th, Alice Robinson (Worthing) 65^th and Imogen Matthews (Chichester) 100^th.

Lewes AC’s Jacob Trotman was the highest finisher in 48^th (13.14) in the under 15 boys’ contest with Fin Lumber Fry (Eastbourne) in 59^th (13.19), Jonah Messer (Eastbourne) 98^th (13.37) and Stanley Wilkes (Chichester) 106^th (13.40).

Competition was fierce in the under 17 men’s race where there was 290 finishers. First year in the age group, Finlay Goodman (Brighton & Hove) clocked 18.20 crossing the line in 24^th with Fintan Pearce (Eastbourne) 76^th (19.03), Thomas Matthews (Brighton & Hove) 81^st (19.05) and Freddie Matthews (Brighton & Hove) 108^th.

In the under 20 women’s race, Eleanor Strevens (Eastbourne) placed 24^th in 21.13, Cerys West (Worthing) 57^th (22.44), Ellie McLean (Eastbourne) 60^th (22.48) and Amelia Cox (Crawley) 62^nd (22.50).

Collectively scoring 218 points, the Sussex under 15 girls were 8^th with Eastbourne’s Freda Pearce leading the pack in 23^rd, followed by club team-mates Daisy Connor in 47^th and Raya Petrova 73^rd, then Horsham’s Izzy Wheeler 75^th.

In the last race of the day, the Senior Men, Robbie Fitzgibbon (Phoenix) was the first Sussex runner in 62^nd, Matthew Grindrod (Brighton & Hove) 84^th , Simon Heath (Phoenix) 102^nd and Joshua Burton 131^st (Phoenix).