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National Cross Country Relays - Mansfield
Written by Matt Bristow   
Sunday, 02 November 2008 07:56

Brighton and Hove City AC were the only Sussex club to travel to the National Cross Country relays in Mansfield. It was a cold and windy day but the ground underfoot was firm and the rain held off until after the event had finished. Each team of four runners was required to run 5k (2 laps) of parkland and wooded stretches.

Andrew Donno ran the crowded first leg and was forced to get his elbows out and chop his stride as he battled for room amongst the 151 other runners. With the first lap complete Andy was able to find some space and pushed on to bring Brighton back in 78th position in 16:56.

Chris Thomson took over on second leg, it was a good run from Chris who picked people off all the way around his leg and with 16:53 brought Brighton back in 58th.

Matt Bristow took over from Chris on the third leg and went out in a small group of runners, towards the end of the first lap he was tucking in behind a small group of runners to try and stay out of the wind. A solid second lap led to a total time of 17:36, Brighton were now 60th.

Jason Benniman completed the team with a leg of 19:13. Jason has been suffering with illness since competing in the World Duatlon Championships in Italy and by his own admission had a lot of fitness to gain. Nevertheless Jason ran a hard final leg and brought the team back in 69th position.

It was a good day out in Mansfield despite the cold and the consensus was that it was worth the trip. For a full set of results please see the link from the English Cross Country Association website.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 02 November 2008 23:37 )
 
Sussex XC League - Senior Men win at Goodwood
Written by Matt Bristow   
Thursday, 30 October 2008 20:58

It was a successful start to the Cross Country League season for the Brighton and Hove senior men's team at Goodwood on Saturday.

The highest place Brighton runner was Chris Thomson who finished in sixth. There were also impressive runs from Nigel Gates who was the first veteran in 9th place. Finishing off the A team were James Tomlinson in 10th making his first appearance in a Brighton vest, Josh Painter in 16th, John Lowden in 21st making his league debut for Brighton and Tom Ulliott in 39th.

The Brighton B team finished in second place in division 2.

For the full results please see the Sussex Athletics website.

Christ Thomson

Last Updated ( Friday, 31 October 2008 07:54 )
 
Junior Boys Start the Season Well at Goodwood
Written by Nick Wilmot   
Thursday, 09 October 2008 21:26

The Brighton & Hove Junior boys put in good performances at a rain soaked Goodwood. This year's Sussex Cross Country Relays were run in near horizontal rain. The team put out a total of 17 boys across the age groups up to Under 17 level.

First off were the Under 13's. With only 2 of the six boys having the experience of racing County cross country courses before, we knew it would be a steep learning curve. The A team of Harry Sullivan  (11mins 57 sec for the 2.8K course), Lewis Sides  (11.57) and Jamie Oliver (10.44) came 5th in a combined time of 34min 38sec. The B team did even better James Hobbs (11.42), Stephen Ferroni (11.10) and Tom Poole (10.36) finished in a joint time of 33min 28sec to gain the bronze medal position.

The three Under 13 B Team Boys with their Bronze Medals

The Under 15 age group had the strongest turn out for Brighton & Hove showing. Over a third of the boys in the 2.8K three leg race were wearing the red and black hoops. The A team of Liam Hurley (9.29), Jake Elliott (10.08) and Tom Wilmot (9.29) won Gold in 29mins 06 seconds, an impressive 1min 12 seconds ahead of Chichester in second place. Liam and Tom ended up in a three way tie with Jamie Moore from Chichester for the individual silver. The B team of Mo Morsi (10.28), Sean Goodier (11.09) and Ian Crowe-Wright (10.14) came in 4th. The Noakes twins of Charlie (10.46) and Harvey (11.09) also ran well.

The Winning Under 15 A Team Collecting Their Medals 

The Under 17 boys of Will Gray (13.46), Chris Woolcott (14.43) and Kieren Silsby  (13.49) came 4th in a closely fought 4K race. They ran in 14 seconds behind the first Sussex team from Lewes and 13 seconds behind Hastings. An excellent start to the XC season.

 

Last Updated ( Saturday, 11 October 2008 07:27 )
 
Sussex Cross Country Relays - When is a win not a win?
Written by Matt Bristow   
Sunday, 05 October 2008 08:51

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!

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 07 October 2008 20:20 )
 
Juniors at the SEAA Road Relays at Aldershot
Written by Nick Wilmot   
Monday, 29 September 2008 21:40
'The under 15 and 17 boys put teams in for the SEAA Road Relays at Aldershot on Sunday 28th September. The Indian Summer weather on the day made condition much warmer than in the past.

Both teams had suffered difficulties during the weeks building up to the event with boys having to pull out due to injuries. The under 17 ended up running two of the four legs, Chris Woolcott had suffering a sprained ankle a couple of days before the race so did not travel and Will Brouwer travelled to Aldershot but was sidelined with an aggrivation of his foot injury.

James McCarthy ran a steady first leg on returning from a preseason break. Macca finished a creditable 25th in a time of 13:00 for the 4K, Kieran Silsby completed the duo's efforts with a fine 13:54 time to leave us 26th of the 44 teams who had 2 or more runners.

The under 15's put out a full team. Tom Wilmot got the boys off to a flyer with a time of 10:02 for the 3 K putting us in 11th place and finishing with the 19th fastest U15 boys time of the day. Jake Elliott was next up, he followed his recent good training performances with a 10:35 time to keep Brighton & Hove in 12th place. Liam Hurley ran the third leg. Liam finished with the second fastest time when he ran the same race last year as a U13. Unfortunately Liam got a stitch with about 1 K to go and finished with a time of 10:58 to put us 17th. Sean Goodier ran the anchor leg. Although Sean has just come up from the U13's he performed well at the U 15 level to bring the boys home 22nd of the 37 teams that finished.


Left to right. Tom Wilmot, Liam Hurley, Sean Goodier, Jake Elliott, Kieran Silsby and Will Brouwer.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 01 October 2008 17:35 )
 
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