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Cross Country Championship medals again for Lewes AC
On Saturday 18th January it was the turn of the Lewes AC runners who compete in the upper age groups to win team and individual medals. The Sussex Masters Cross Country Championships took place over a challenging two lap 5 mile Downland course at Coombe Farm, Lancing.
It was in the race for over 40 men that Lewes AC runners showed a clean pair of spikes to runners from other Sussex clubs. Over the first lap Matt Bradford was lying in second place behind a Brighton and Hove City AC runner but it was over the second lap that Matt showed his strength and pulled away to win the race and claim the gold medal.
Showing the strength of the over 40 runners at Lewes Chris Gilbert came in just behind the Brighton Runner in third place for the bronze medal. Just behind Chris was Adam Vaughan in 4th place to make it three Lewes AC runners in the first four. Making up the scoring team of four was Ben Hodgson in 17th place with Andrew McLennan finishing in 31st place. With a team score of 25 points this was 37 points in front of the Brighton Phoenix team with 62 points and 44 points in front of the Chichester AC team with 69 points. This was a massive win for the Lewes team.
With many more over 40 runners in the club the question must be asked why were there only just five Lewes AC runners competing in the race? An injury or two reduced the team to five but there could have been so many more over 40 men turning out and running for themselves and for the club.
Jonathon Burrell running in the first race of the afternoon for the over 50 and over 60 men came 10th in the over 50 category. In the same race Dominic Osman-Allu who came 25th However with just two runners it was not enough to make up a team of three. Where were you all? The same comment applies to the over 60 men with David Prince Isles the very lonely Lewes AC runner in the race.
However not to be outdone by the men the Lewes AC team of over 45 women came away with a well earning silver medal running the same distance course as the men. Leading the women’s team was Mary Campbell in 4th place followed closely by Helen Sida in 6th Place. Closing in the third member of the team was Helen Bowman in 21st place to give the team a score of 31 points behind the Arena80 team and ahead of the Brighton and Hove City AC team with 33 points.
Again this was a great performance from the only three Lewes AC women that ran but where were all the other women? If other clubs can get many women to run the Championshipswhy not Lewes.