Youngest Sussex Athlete To Medal At National Cross Country Champs

Katherine Haslip became the youngest Sussex athlete to win a medal at the National Cross Country Champs at Parliament Hill at the weekend.

The Brighton Phoenix youngster, who only turned 11 a few months ago, won the Under 13 Girls’ silver in a time of 12.39 – just 1 second behind the winner. Brighton & Hove’s Julieana Walsh, came an impressive 16^th out of 393 finishers.

In the Under 13 Boys’ race, the Brighton & Hove team were in fine form. As s result of Raphael Kelly placing 21^st, George Gilbert 29^th, Saul Bennett 30^th and Alex Roberts 101^st the team were rewarded with the silver medal.

Grace Tuesday (Lewes AC) was the first Sussex Under 15 Girl to cross the finish line in 19^th whilst Dulcie Yelling (Brighton & Hove AC) was 30^th. Lewes AC just missed out on a team medal in 4^th place.

The biggest turnout in the junior races was in the Under 15 Boys where 412 completed the tough course. Owen Wallek (Brighton Phoenix) continued his recent fine form coming 7^th whilst Finlay Goodman (Brighton & Hove AC) had the best run of his season coming in 15^th with team-mate Jude Clayton 25^th.

Just outside the medals was Yasmin Kashdan (Crawley AC) in the Under 17 Women’s race whilst Lewes AC’s Charlie Wright was the first Sussex Under 17 man to finish in 36^th. Ned Potter (Chichester) had a brilliant run in the Junior Men’s race coming 9^th.

A total of 5603 runners completed the races with 2090 of these Senior Men. Among the Sussex finishers were Chichester’s Harry Leleu in 30^th, William Cork (Brighton & Hove AC) 36^th and Tomer Tarragano (Brighton & Hove AC) 37^th.

Hastings AC’s Eileen Beach was the top Sussex Senior Woman placing 41^st.