Saturday 02 Jan – Stanmer Park, Brighton
In bright sunshine and on icy ground the Brighton & Hove City AC Senior Men’s team retained their team title and the Silver statue of Mercury at the Brooks Sussex Cross Country Championships in Stanmer Park on Saturday.
In this the highest quality Cross Country race of the season in Sussex the competition was fierce by the main protaganists at the front of the race and friendly by the members of the Brighton team to see who would make up the scoring six. Unfortunately one or two of the guys missed out on a medal but should be pleased that they helped the B team into fifth position.
First Brighton runner home was Matt Bristow in seventh place with 44.38. Matt having run the majority of the course measured at almost 8 miles on his own was chased down by Pat Davoren who had woken up on the final lap. Despite a frantic sprint for the line Matt just missed out on sixth. In eigth place showing he is adapting to the demands of Cross Country was Chris Thomson with 45.27. David Benton was 12th with 46.28 but hasn’t lived in the County long enough so was a non-scorer. Just four seconds seperated Luke Lambourne and Richard Airey in 15th and 16th position with 46.50 and 46.54. Finishing off the team were Zared Hale in 19th with 47.05 and Keith Newton in 21st with 47.25. It was Louis Taub who has improved so much in the last year who was the unlucky member to miss out on a team medal in 23rd place with 47.36.
In the U20s race there was an outstanding performance from James McCarthy. The U20s run with the Senior Men but only run two laps whilst the Seniors run three. James set off at a controlled pace running his own race as usual and worked off the some of the Senior Men to finsh first in 29.02, over a minute clear of Finn McNally who was second.
For a full set of results please select the following link to the Sussex Athletics Website.