The Brighton & Hove Junior boys put in good performances at a rain soaked Goodwood. This year’s Sussex Cross Country Relays were run in near horizontal rain. The team put out a total of 17 boys across the age groups up to Under 17 level.
First off were the Under 13’s. With only 2 of the six boys having the experience of racing County cross country courses before, we knew it would be a steep learning curve. The A team of Harry Sullivan (11mins 57 sec for the 2.8K course), Lewis Sides (11.57) and Jamie Oliver (10.44) came 5th in a combined time of 34min 38sec. The B team did even better James Hobbs (11.42), Stephen Ferroni (11.10) and Tom Poole (10.36) finished in a joint time of 33min 28sec to gain the bronze medal position.
The three Under 13 B Team Boys with their Bronze Medals
The Under 15 age group had the strongest turn out for Brighton & Hove showing. Over a third of the boys in the 2.8K three leg race were wearing the red and black hoops. The A team of Liam Hurley (9.29), Jake Elliott (10.08) and Tom Wilmot (9.29) won Gold in 29mins 06 seconds, an impressive 1min 12 seconds ahead of Chichester in second place. Liam and Tom ended up in a three way tie with Jamie Moore from Chichester for the individual silver. The B team of Mo Morsi (10.28), Sean Goodier (11.09) and Ian Crowe-Wright (10.14) came in 4th. The Noakes twins of Charlie (10.46) and Harvey (11.09) also ran well.
The Winning Under 15 A Team Collecting Their Medals
The Under 17 boys of Will Gray (13.46), Chris Woolcott (14.43) and Kieren Silsby (13.49) came 4th in a closely fought 4K race. They ran in 14 seconds behind the first Sussex team from Lewes and 13 seconds behind Hastings. An excellent start to the XC season.