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A challenging and successful weekend for Lewes AC at Plumpton College
It was a challenging weekend for Lewes AC as it hosted a Sussex Athletics Cross Country League event at Plumpton Agricultural College. With over 550 runners and a similar number of spectators it was major event for the club to stage. With 72 club members running and over 25 members organising and officiating the event it was a massive success for the club made even better by great weather on the day.
The first success of the day came in the under 13 boy’s event when Ben Martin won the race leading the team to third position out of the 16 competing club teams. First finisher in the under 13 girls race was Rosie Gainsford in 11th position closely followed by Anya Tamplin 10 seconds behind. The girl’s team currently lie in 5th position also out of 17 club teams.
Winning the under 15 boys race was Aiden Briffett who with Sam Rogers (8th) and Japer Baker (11th) enabled the Lewes team to win the race on the day and places them 3rd in the league after two events. The depleted under15 girl’s team of Nia Hall and Ella Munday managed to score great points to enable the team to finish middle table of 12 teams. First finisher for Lewes in the under 17 men’s race was Patrick McManus (12th) followed by Tobias Baker (15th) and Connor Sullivan (22). This placed the A team in 4th position in the race but secured their 3rd position in the Sussex league by just 2 points in front of Hastings AC. All to play for in future events
Moving up the age groups Lewes AC had some great individual and team performances in the senior and veteran men and women categories. With 199 competitors in the Senior and Veteran men’s race Robbie James made a great come back to racing by finishing 11th in the race and first veteran runner. He was closely followed by Josh Burgess in 13th position and Chris Gilbert in 17th position and 3rd veteran runner. With Louis Sida (34th) Alan Velecky (36th) and Jonathon Burrell (40th) making up the Lewes A team they finished in a fantastic 3rd position in division one in the race and cemented the team’s 2nd position in the league after two events.
In the Veteran age category race the Lewes AC vets again showed the way with the Lewes A team of Robbie James, Chris Gilbert and Louis Sida cementing their first position in the race and consolidating their first place in the league so far. The B team of Jonathon Burrell, Chris Hunt and Andrew Masters again performed well to finish in 5th position only a few points behind the teams in front of them again all to play for in future events.
With a somewhat depleted women’s team the A team nevertheless improved their score over the first race at Goodwood, and finished in 6th position again. After two races they lie 5th in the division, a really solid result. The women’s B team scored much better than at Goodwood and came 3rd in the race putting them in 4th position in the league just 5 points behind the team in 3rd position.
The women’s vets team repeated their score from Goodwood but this time came 8th instead of 10th in the vets division (which has 27 teams), and after two races are lying in 8th position in their division.