The last Sussex cross country league meeting of the season was held on a very cold day and conditions under foot very muddy, however 28 Brighton youngsters, who have been in the scoring 3 over the 4 meetings that started back in October, took home medals and with all are 6 teams finishing in the first 3 teams and with 3 taking overall individual league titles, it was a great day for the club. Apart from the medal winners there were 18 others that have contributed to their teams success over the 4 meetings.
The first race of the day was the Sussex primary schools championships where Dulcie Yelling had an excellent run in second place.
In the U/13 girls race Rebecca Losh after her excellent 8th place in the Southern championships won her second race of the season in impressive style and was followed home by Lacey Fowler despite not feeling well in 8th, Eadie Yelling 9th, Ella Matthews 11th, Jess Corbet 12th, Bertie Brooking having her best race 14th, Sima Saadatzadeh after losing both shoes in the mud did well to finish 25th and Edie Seth 32nd . The team after winning the Sussex Championships last month added the league title by a clear margin and to emphasized their depth the B team finished 1st and 5th team overall. Well done also to Ciara Muzio who has just recently joined the group, had her best league race in 4th place.
In the U/13 boys race Henry Yelling after finishing in 29th place in his first race in October, led the team home in 9th closely followed by Haiden May 13th and Will Matthews 19th competed the team, where they finished 3rd just 4 points behind the league winners and held on to second place in the league to collect the silver medals. The team was well backed up by Archie Rowles who had been unwell all week 21st, Josh Pay 23rd, Oscar Davies 24th, Ethan Booth 30th who also lost a shoe in the mud, George Taylor 38th, Tom Wells 55th, Jonny Walker 57th and Kit Monti 59th in a field of 69 runners and were again the 1st B team overall.
In the U/15 girls race they were again led by home by Lois Dooley who had another excellent run in 2nd and with Alex Nann who finished 17th in her first league race finishing an excellent 4th and with the ever consistent Amber Wright 11th Astrid Blackledge 17th the team finished overall in 3rd place just 1 point behind the second team. The team did win the Sussex championships in January so another excellent team performance.
In the U/15 boys race the team before the start were are only team outside the first 3 teams, however with Max Brazier who was 10th in his previous 3 races, led the team home in 5th and with Tom Roberts 9th, Adam First 16th, Patrick Connolly not feeling 100% 23rd, Henry Taylor 25th and Joseph Luker 28th the team were placed second on the day and after an anxious wait claimed 2nd place overall in the league table. They like the u/15 girls can be pleased with their season has they also won the Sussex championships.
In the U/17 men’s race Tom Eames was another impressive winner on the day and was are second individual league winner and with Sam Kane another who improved as the season went on 12th, Sam Wilkinson 16th the team finished second on the day and second overall in the league.
In the u/17 women’s race Olivia Lyon Monk was are 3rd overall winner on the day with another excellent run, which earned her the individual league title and with Emma Gill having her best race of the season in 4th and the ever present Amy Gamblin 11th and Jemima Edwards 12th the team on the day were in first place and over the 4 fixtures were just 4 points behind the winners in second place, it could not have been any closer.
Well done again to every one who have competed this season and to the excellent support from are parents and a big thank you to are coaches Steve, David, John and Keith.
A special thank you also to the host club Haywards Heath Harriers and to all the officials who were there in the cold for nearly four hours who put on an excellent meeting.