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Cross Country successes for Lewes AC
Two very wet and windy weekends signalled the start of the cross county season. 33 Lewes AC runners braved the weather at Eastbourne on Sunday 13th Oct to compete in the first of the Sunday cross country league events and came away with the team prize. Up against 10 other clubs Lewes secured a win with 692 points against the 821 points scored by Hailsham Harriers in second position. With each club team of 20 having to field a mixture of ages and contain both men and women the Lewes team scored well in all categories.
First senior man for Lewes was Ben Saville who completed the 5 mile tough wet and windy course in 30mins 28secs in 6th position overall. Jonathon Burrell ran a fantastic race as an over 50 runner to finish in 11th position in 31mins 49secs. The next runners home for Lewes were Chris Hunt (12th – 32.07) Andrew Masters (15th – 32.26) Alan Jackson (16th – 32.37) and Ben Messer (18th – 32.52)
The first female runner for Lewes was Sally Norris who was the 3rd women to finish and 39th overall in a time of 34mins 52sec. Backing up Sally were Lara Barazzuol as the 6th woman in 36mins 00secs and Helen Sida in 40mins 00secs. Also gaining very valuable points for the Lewes team was Bev Sheridan who filled the women over 55 age category in a time of 49mins 12secs.
The following weekend at Goodwood it was equally wet and windy for the Brooks Sussex Cross Country League, particularly for the junior races but cleared up when the senior men and women started their races. Across all age groups there were 53 runners who braved the conditions to race for Lewes.
In the under 13 boys race Ben Martin came first to help the Lewes team to second position of the 19 teams in the race. There was great support from Ben Walters, Jay Atkins, Joey Webbon, Alex Monson and Milo Hemsley. The under13 girls team were 5th out of 17 teams and were led home by Rosie Gainsford in 14th position. There was another good result for the under 15 boys team who finished in 3rd position out of 17 teams led home by Aiden Briffett in 4th position overall. The Lewes under 15 girls team finished in 7th position out of 13 teams with Nia Hall leading the team in 7th position and the under 17 men’s team finished in 4th position out of 12 teams.
There was a great turn out of senior and veteran runners from Lewes with 28 running in the men and women’s races. Having been recently promoted to the first division of the league both the men and women’s teams acquitted themselves well. The senior men in a race of nearly 200 runners finished fourth out of eight teams in division one with Josh Burgess in 8th overall. In the second division the Lewes B team was 3rd out of 8 teams. The C team 3rd out of 37 teams in the 3rd division and the D team were 18th
The women’s teams also ran well with the A team finishing 6th out of 8 in division one, the B team 4th out of 31 in the second division and the C team third C team in division three.
The Veteran’s team of over 40 men had a great result finishing 1st team of the 41 teams competing and were led home by Chris Gilbert who was the first over 40 to finish in 16th position overall.