Under 13’s on the start line

Harry, James, Tom, George and Stephen

James on the final charge down the hill bringing the Under 13’s home.

The winning Under 13 trio of James, Stephen and Tom

Complete under 13’s Team Scoring

Place Time

James Oliver 1 12:17

Stephen Ferroni 3 12:33

Tom O’Brien 11 13:17

George Turner 13 13:24

Harry Sullivan-Jones 21 14:19

The Under 15’s who have been dominant all season found the competition stiffer than the early league meetings. Liam Hurley and Ian Crowe-Wright were in an early break away group with two others for company. Jake Elliott seemed slightly off the pace until the second climb of the course where his experience told and he caught and passed the leading group to finish with a healthy lead. As with the Under 13’s the winner was backed up by a third place, Ian Crowe-Wright, and a strong third scorer, Liam Hurley, to take the team title. The under 15’s were more convincing in their win having an impressive 17 point lead of the second place team.

Complete under 15’s Team Scoring

Place Time

Jake Elliott 1 17:47

Ian Crowe-Wright 3 18:27

Liam Hurley 5 18:42

Charlie Noakes 12 20:09

Harvey Noakes 15 21:11

Under 15’s on the start line minus Jake

Liam, Harvey, Charlie, Ian

Jake with the Under 15 Champions Shield and all the medals won at that level. Four Gold and one Bronze

The Under 17’s had the hardest test against a strong Hastings team. Having seen the previous two junior ages bring home the team Championships they were under pressure to keep the momentum up. Alex Rice in his first year at the Under 17 level tracked the leading pair around the majority of the challenging 5K course to come home with third place. With Will Gray and Kieran Silsby making up the team they finished with 14 points, the same as Hastings. They were crowned Champions by dint of having a complete team of three home before the last scoring Hastings lad.

Complete under 17’s Team Scoring

Place Time

Alex Rice 3 18:30

Will Gray 5 19:09

Kieran Silsby 6 19:13

The Under 17’s just before the off

Alex, Kieran & Will

The Under 17’s team Champions

The three junior teams came away from the meeting with two County Champions, three individual bronze medals, all three team Championships and seven automatic selections to represent the County at the Inter-County in the spring. A thrilling result all round

For further details follow the link to the full scores on the Sussex County site:

http://www.sussexathletics.org.uk/results.php#212

Saturday 02 Jan - Stanmer Park, Brighton

In bright sunshine and on icy ground the Brighton & Hove City AC Senior Men's team retained their team title and the Silver statue of Mercury at the Brooks Sussex Cross Country Championships in Stanmer Park on Saturday.

In this the highest quality Cross Country race of the season in Sussex the competition was fierce by the main protaganists at the front of the race and friendly by the members of the Brighton team to see who would make up the scoring six. Unfortunately one or two of the guys missed out on a medal but should be pleased that they helped the B team into fifth position.

First Brighton runner home was Matt Bristow in seventh place with 44.38. Matt having run the majority of the course measured at almost 8 miles on his own was chased down by Pat Davoren who had woken up on the final lap. Despite a frantic sprint for the line Matt just missed out on sixth. In eigth place showing he is adapting to the demands of Cross Country was Chris Thomson with 45.27. David Benton was 12th with 46.28 but hasn't lived in the County long enough so was a non-scorer. Just four seconds seperated Luke Lambourne and Richard Airey in 15th and 16th position with 46.50 and 46.54. Finishing off the team were Zared Hale in 19th with 47.05 and Keith Newton in 21st with 47.25. It was Louis Taub who has improved so much in the last year who was the unlucky member to miss out on a team medal in 23rd place with 47.36.

In the U20s race there was an outstanding performance from James McCarthy. The U20s run with the Senior Men but only run two laps whilst the Seniors run three. James set off at a controlled pace running his own race as usual and worked off the some of the Senior Men to finsh first in 29.02, over a minute clear of Finn McNally who was second.

For a full set of results please select the following link to the Sussex Athletics Website.

Results

Saturday 26th December - Preston Park, Brighton

The rain held off for the duration of the annual Boxing Day Races in Preston Park. In spite of the inclement weather overnight 140 runners took to the start line.

In the 4 lap men's race once the banter about who had eaten the most Christmas dinner was over the racing started with Finn McNally and Matt Bristow taking the initial pace. With the first two miles covered in a little over 10 minutes it was a case of who could maintain this pace the longest. Matt pushed the hill on the third lap but had no answer when Finn gained a small gap at the beginning of the final lap. Both Matt and Finn were suffering up the final hill and Chris Thomson took advantage by overtaking Matt and closing the gap to Finn. In the final sprint to the finish Finn held on for first in 29:29 with Chris second with 29:33 and Matt third with 29:42.

In the women's race Caroline Hoyte ran 32:39 for seventh place overall to beat Katie Moore who ran 33:23. Julia Downes was third with 35:19.

For the results please select the following links;

4 Lap Race

3 Lap Race

2 Lap Race

1 Lap Race

The races raised £320 for the Help for Heroes Charity.

So far this season there have been a disappointing number of girls taking part in the cross country season, but the girls who have taken part have made up for this with some fantastic performances.

The season started with the Goodwood Cross Country Relays.  The under 13 team of Laura Smith, Steffi Paraskevas and Chloe Gregory Bennet came 4^th.  Our fourth runner Esther Lutz-Davies made up a team with two Lewes girls and found herself in a non-scoring but winning team.  Rachel Titheradge was the only under 17 girl so she ran in the Women’s B team.

In the first League race at Goodwood on 28^th October the number of runners were reduced due to half term.  Just four girls turned out in extremely wet, muddy conditions.  Goodwood was shrouded in mist and the runners were seen to appear magically out of the mist.  The under 13s race saw Steffi 8^th, Laura 13^th and Esther 16^th out of a field of 40.  In the under 15s Holly Turner was 16th.  These were great performances in very difficult conditions.

The first Sunday in November saw lots of the younger girls turn up in Preston Park for the Phoenix Races.  In the under 13s Laura was 6^th, Steffi 8^th, Esther 10^th and Kathleen Dalton 29^th.  Laura, Steffi and Esther were the second placed team.  In the under 11s lots of Brighton girls ran, hopefully these will be our future cross country runners.  The results were Hannah Pinkus 30^th, Leonie Handley 34^th, Poppy Harrison 36^th, Abby Draper 39^th and Caitlin O’Donahue 57^th.

On Saturday 28^th November five girls ran in the second league race which took place at Plumpton, a course which a lot of girls don’t like.  In muddy conditions the under 13s started the day with outstanding results.  Out of a field of 38 runners Steffi Paraskevas ran hard all the way to finish in 5^th place, closely followed by Laura Smith in 11^th and Esther Lutz Davies in 14^th.   After two races the under 13 team are now in joint second place with Crawley and 17 points behind Hastings.  In both the under 15s and under 17s there was only one Brighton runner.  Holly Turner was 9^th under 15 girl and Rachel Titheradge 24^th in the women’s race and the 5^th under 17 runner.

Steffi was selected to represent Sussex in the Inter Counties Match at Parliament Hill in November.  She ran superbly at Parliament Hill to come in 39^th. 

Well done to all the girls, I look forward to more successes after Christmas in the second half of the season.  

Ann Titheradge
Girls Cross Country Manager