Senior Men 

The Men's 2008 Sussex Cross Country relay championships proved to be eventful even before the race had started. James McCarthy had been involved in a car accident on the way to the course, fortunately he escaped with only cuts and bruises. With James who was due to run second leg unavailable, the Brighton team had to make a decison about who to replace him with in the team. It was decided that rather than compromise the U17 and Vets teams chances of medals by taking one of their runners, Andy Donno would run two legs. This would mean that the Brighton team weren't eligilble for the Sussex Championships but did at least mean they could be competitive.

On the first leg Andy Donno set off at a relaxed pace as the some of the less experienced youngsters pushed the pace at the front. Going into the long descent through the woods Andy was outside the top ten, but by the time the athletes re-appeared up the steep hill from the woods he was third. At this stage the gap to Robbie James of Lewes and James Baker of Chichester was about 15 seconds. Andy set to work on closing the gap around the final field and a perfectly judged leg meant he passed James in the final 100m and cut the defecit to Robbie to two seconds to record 12:27.

Chris took over from Andy on second leg and immediately dropped back to third as Harry Richardson of Chichester set about catching Josh Burgess of Lewes. The gap was growing as the runners descended into the woods but Chris was running relaxed and keeping his head. When the Chris came back up the hill there was no sign of the Lewes and Chichester runners and he extended his lead over Chichester to 48 seconds to finish in 12:46. The gap to Finn McNally of Phoenix at this stage was over a minute.

Dan Titheradge took over on the third leg and as the runners re-appeared from the woods it was Dan Stepney of Phoenix who was in pursuit. The gap at one stage was down to about 25 seconds but over the final field Dan pulled away again to hand over to Andy Donno with a 48 second lead.

Andy was having one of those days where you just run fast for fun and he set off calmly as everyone wondered how much that 12.27 first leg had taken out of his legs. It seemed a long time before the runners came back into the view having descended into the woods. Josh Guilmant of Phoenix had taken a chunk out of the Brighton lead which was now 15 seconds. Thankfully Andy had enough energy left and was able to maintain the gap to the finish clocking another good time of 12.53.

It was an exciting race in the end and the Brighton team left feeling like they had won, albeit without the Sussex medals!

The Brighton and Hove Men's team started their winter by finishing in 36th place at the SEAA 6 Stage Road Relay Championships at Aldershot on Saturday. It was a mixed day for Brighton who were trying to qualify for the National Road Relays in Sutton Park next month. In the end a top 25 finish and qualification was beyond a weakened Brighton team but there was the consolation of being the highest place Sussex team.

Each runner was required to run two undulating laps of Rushmore Arena totalling 6k. Kev Mason took the challenging first leg and gave the Brighton A team a good start finishing in 34th position with 19:43. Dave Boyce coming off a two week break ran a solid leg of 20:40 to finish 43rd. Shaun Billing, a last minute addition to the team ran to form with 21:23, to leave us 47th. Fourth leg was Dan Tetheradge. Dan has been struggling for fitness recently and his leg of 22:08 dropped us to 52nd.

It was now over to Andy Donno and Chris Thomson on legs five and six to try and turn things around. Andy set off and looked to be flying on the first lap of the two lap course. This pace was continued on lap two and Andy's time of 19:35 gained the team 11 places.

Last year on the final leg Chris took the team into a qualification position on the final leg. This year he had too much to do and had to concentrate on maintaining our position as first Sussex team. Chris set off at a controlled pace covering the first lap in 10:00. On the second lap Chris began to push and with a fast last lap of 9:46 finished with 19:46. Another 5 places had been gained and we ended up 36th. Given the hilly nature of this course it is difficult to run a negative split so well done to Chris for keeping his head and maintaining our position as first Sussex team home, albeit only by 15 seconds.

Results

The Winter 2008/2009 Fixtures are now available to download from the Sussex website along with details of the Sussex Cross Country League.

All,
I'm delighted to be able to say that the 'Brighton Birthday Boys' track
10,000m went ahead very successfully on Fri 22nd August in lovely evening
sunshine and with only a slight wind down the finishing straight. 
There was real quality at the sharp end and a good turn out from a range
of Brighton runners
Also excellent support for the time-keeping and lap recording so thanks
so much to all who turned up and ran or assisted
Results have been sent to Athletics Weekly so I hope they will be
captured and reported next week.  I'm hoping that this may well become
an annual event on or around this same date so watch this space

Best wishes
Tom Ulliott

Men

1 - James Baker - Chichester - SM -  31:35
2 - Josh Painter - B&H City AC -SM - 33.24
3 - Shaun Billing - B&H City AC -VM40 - 35.52
4 - Tom Ulliott - B&H City AC -VM50 - 37.13
5 - Mark Halls - B&H City AC -VM45 - 37.56  
6 - Neil Walford - B&H City AC -VM40 - 39.53
7 - Dave Whittle - B&H City AC -VM40 - 41.28
8 - Kevin Bush - B&H City AC -VM45 - 41.43
9 - Mike Airey - B&H City AC - VM55 - 49.04

Women

1 - Cathy Ulliott - B&H City AC -VF40 - 41.26

5,000m

Tom Fallon - B&H City AC - VM55 - 22:22