The boys celebrated a Happy New Year at the Sussex Cross Country Champs on the first Saturday of the new decade. At a bright but cold Stanmer Park the under 13’s put out a strong team and hoped to be in the mix for both individual and team medals. James Oliver continued his excellent early season form to win the race and along with Stephen Ferroni (bronze) and Tom O’Brien in 11th the ‘A’ team won the event by a margin of nine points.
Under 13’s on the start line
Harry, James, Tom, George and Stephen
James on the final charge down the hill bringing the Under 13’s home.
The winning Under 13 trio of James, Stephen and Tom
Complete under 13’s Team Scoring
Place Time
James Oliver 1 12:17
Stephen Ferroni 3 12:33
Tom O’Brien 11 13:17
George Turner 13 13:24
Harry Sullivan-Jones 21 14:19
The Under 15’s who have been dominant all season found the competition stiffer than the early league meetings. Liam Hurley and Ian Crowe-Wright were in an early break away group with two others for company. Jake Elliott seemed slightly off the pace until the second climb of the course where his experience told and he caught and passed the leading group to finish with a healthy lead. As with the Under 13’s the winner was backed up by a third place, Ian Crowe-Wright, and a strong third scorer, Liam Hurley, to take the team title. The under 15’s were more convincing in their win having an impressive 17 point lead of the second place team.
Complete under 15’s Team Scoring
Place Time
Jake Elliott 1 17:47
Ian Crowe-Wright 3 18:27
Liam Hurley 5 18:42
Charlie Noakes 12 20:09
Harvey Noakes 15 21:11
Under 15’s on the start line minus Jake
Liam, Harvey, Charlie, Ian
Jake with the Under 15 Champions Shield and all the medals won at that level. Four Gold and one Bronze
The Under 17’s had the hardest test against a strong Hastings team. Having seen the previous two junior ages bring home the team Championships they were under pressure to keep the momentum up. Alex Rice in his first year at the Under 17 level tracked the leading pair around the majority of the challenging 5K course to come home with third place. With Will Gray and Kieran Silsby making up the team they finished with 14 points, the same as Hastings. They were crowned Champions by dint of having a complete team of three home before the last scoring Hastings lad.
Complete under 17’s Team Scoring
Place Time
Alex Rice 3 18:30
Will Gray 5 19:09
Kieran Silsby 6 19:13
The Under 17’s just before the off
Alex, Kieran & Will
The Under 17’s team Champions
The three junior teams came away from the meeting with two County Champions, three individual bronze medals, all three team Championships and seven automatic selections to represent the County at the Inter-County in the spring. A thrilling result all round
For further details follow the link to the full scores on the Sussex County site:
http://www.sussexathletics.org.uk/results.php#212