Home » Latest Club News »
Pett Levels and Sussex Cross Country Championships, 8 January 2012
Lewes AC runners were in action at two venues on Sunday. At the fourth of six races in the East Sussex Sunday Cross Country League they took the overall lead from their arch-rivals Hailsham by just one point. Meanwhile at the Brooks Sussex Cross Country Championships the under-13 boys team won the bronze medal and two junior runners finished in the top 5 of their races and were selected to represent Sussex at the National Inter-Counties match at Birmingham.
Twenty-one runners made the long treck to the far side of Hastings for the East Sussex Sunday Cross Country League race at Pett Levels. The weather was clear and dry, if chilly, and the name of the venue promised a flat race. Unfortunately this promise remained unfulfilled, as the course took runners repeatedly up and down hill, meanwhile winding in an intricate pattern around soft fields and attractive but often muddy woodland paths until all sense of direction was gone.
At the end of 5 challenging miles, however, the Lewes runners came in with flying colours. In the provisional results, the first five in the men’s race were John Lowden (3rd, 33:48), Colin Bennett (11th, 36:04), Mat Homewood (12th, 36:07), Simon Thomas (13th, 36:14) and Andrew Chitty (19th, 37:01), and in the women’s race Sally Norris (3rd, 40:09), Carole Walters (7th, 41:49), Catherine Swinson (10th, 42:12), Paula Taylor (13th, 44:07) and Suzanne Holliman (16th, 45:45). There were 114 finishers, the men’s race was won by Lee Ashworth (Hailsham, 31:04), and the women’s race by Holly Wheeler (Hastings AC, 35:12).
Lewes were missing their some of their star performers, who were either injured or running at the Sussex Cross Country Championships the same day, but luckily they same was the case for Hailsham. When the points were tallied Lewes emerged as the overall winners with 547 points, while Hailsham, who had won the first three races of the league, slumped to 5th position with 886 (the lower the points the better the score). Lewes now have a total of only 7 race-points (from three 2nd positions and a 1st), giving them a one-point lead in the League over Hailsham who have 8 (from three 1st positions and a 5th). With two races to go there is everything to play for. The next race is at Ashdown Forest on 29 January.
The same day at Stanmer Park Lewes AC had successes at both team and individual level at the Brooks Sussex Cross Country Championships, held over an undulating course of grass and occasionally muddy woodland trails.
The under-13 boys took the bronze medal with a team of Aidan Briffett in 6th place, 8th placed Sam Rogers and Nielsen Reaveley making up the team in 11th place.
The under-15 boys came 7th, with Patrick Mcmanus in 14th position, Connor Sullivan 20th, Tom Brightwell 33rd and Jack Hogsden 34th.
The under-15 girls team placed 9th with Evie Rothwell in 17th position, Holly English 25th and Romy Loughman returning to fitness in 37th place.
There were no team successes for the older age groups but individual achievements for Maddy Smith (4th position under-17 women) and Ludo Goodliffe (5th position under-20 men), who both qualified for the National Inter-Counties Match to be held in Birmingham in March.
In the under 17-men Tim Calliafas was 17th, with Harrison Reaveley in 22nd position, in the under-20 mens’s race Ben Pepler was 17th, whilst in the senior mens race Josh Burgess was 27th and Tom Morris 30th. In the under-20 women’s race, Gina Wilson was 6th and Lizzie Keep was 7th.
Full results are available at http://sussexraces.tripod.com/sussexraceseventarchive.html and http://www.eastsussexcrosscountry.co.uk/results
Note (19 Jan 2012): The provisional results of the Pett event have now been revised, with the regrettable consequence that Lewes AC are deemed to have come second to Hastings Runners, with 576 and 535 points respectively. Lewes and Hailsham therefore now stand in equal first place in the league with 8 race-points each.