There were some great results for Sussex from the South East Schools Inter-county match at Bexhill on Saturday including a brilliant team victory for the Junior (Under 15) girls team and individual gold for Joe Smith, silver for Martha Coyle and bronze for the Senior (Under 19) girls.
Team victories for Sussex are few and far between at this event and it was a nail biting victory for the Sussex team with just three points separating the first four teams in this race.
With the first three from the recent Sussex Schools championship all choosing to miss this race it was left to Amelia Wright (Farlington) to lead the team home and she had probably her best run to date as she managed to hold off Maya Ramnarine (Robertsbridge) for eighth place by just a few metres.Charlotte Bullard (Chichester) finished 12th, Eloise Nicol (Dorothy Stringer) 14th, Harmony Cooper (Rye) 16th while Lois Dooley (Shoreham) completed the scoring six in 27th place.It was in fact Dooley’s run that ensured the Sussex victory as both Sussex and Hampshire totalled 86 points but Dooley finished ahead of the Hampshire team’s sixth scorer.Surrey scored 88 points and Kent 89.
Last year in the Year 8 S.E. Inter-counties Joe Smith (Oakmeeds) hit the headlines when he romped to victory.At Bexhill he turned up trumps again running his best race to date to win a hard fought race with Surrey’s Luke Oudtshoorn by just one second in 12:50.Max Brazier (Patcham) was the second Sussex runner to finish in 27th place and the team finished fifth.
Cardinal Newman’s Martha Coyle, who missed all of last year because of illness, showed she is virtually back to her best with a splendid silver medal in the senior Girls race.Despite her slim frame she coped well with the heavy mud that is synonymous with the Bexhill Down course to chase home Kent’s Sabrina Sinha clocking 16:50 to the winner’s 16:26 and well clear of Jodie Judd (Essex) who filled third place.
Louise Nash (William Parker) is also getting back to the form she showed a couple of years back placing sixth in 17:50 while Karina Bennetts (Bishop Luffa) placed 13th, Olivia Dowle (Worth) 15th, Sophie Markwick 17th, and Charlotte Reading (Seaford College) closed in the team in 23rd place.ÂÂ In another close team event Sussex finished an excellent third with 76 points behind Berkshire’s 69 and Hampshire’s 75 points.ÂÂ Jack Leith (BHASVIC) and Dan Stidder (Heathfield) place eighth and 23rd to lead the senior Boys’ team into fifth team spot.
Both the intermediate Girl’s and Boys’ team finished in sixth team spot with Romy Van Der Veen (Millais) and Olivia Monk (Dorothy Stringer) finished 24th and 26th respectively to lead the Girls home while Will Broom (Bishop Luffa) and Matthew McCarthy (Beacon) led the Boys home in 22nd and 34th place.