It was a good day for Sussex athletes in the annual Brighton 10k road race which was held on Sunday 18th November after missing last year’s event because of severe weather conditions.
This year the conditions were good and Jonathan Hopkins from Swansea stormed away from a field that by and large lacked the quality that the race usually attracts. He finished more than one minute ahead of his nearest rival, Crawley’s James Westlake, in a fast time of 29:40s. Westlake would be one of the top Sussex runners had not his love and ability as a footballer not decreed that he play football on Saturday’s when most of the important racing takes place.He clocked a personal best time of 30:57s for his second place holding off a strong challenge from Southend’s Paul Whitaker who recorded 31:12s.
Sussex runners filled the next four places with veteran Howard Bristow clocking 31:51s in fourth place and Matt Bradford (Lewes) just managing to hold off Kevin Rojas (Brighton & Hove) who both clocked 31:56s while Jack Wood (Crawley) placed seventh in 32.01s.
Chichester’s Rebecca Moore led the women home placing 37th overall in 34:51s.
Maisie Trafford (Arena 80) finished 77th for second women’s placing in 36:47s while Mariko Rubino placed 85th in 37.06s for the bronze medal placing and Emily Proto (Arena 80) was 93rd in 37:20s for fourth place.