Sussex Cross Country League, Stanmer Park
The first Sussex cross country league meeting of the season was held with record fields on a mild day with firm conditions underfoot in Stanmer park.Over 50 Brighton youngsters competed and five of our teams finished in the first 3 teams, with our u/15 boys coming out on top. It was an excellent start to the league season and great to see also so many u/13’s competing in the first league race.
In the u/13 girls race Rosie, a first year in the age group, came 7th, Maddy running her best ever race was 8th and Macy running in her first ever league race was 12th and the team finished an excellent 3rd. The B team of Tilly 16th, Polly 18th and Flo 23rd came 6th and the C team of Nicole 24th, Ilse 26th Sophie 30th and Esme 36th finished 7th of the 21 teams.
In the u/13 boys race there was another excellent turn out and it was Jude in his first year in the age group coming 13th, he led the team home and with Ruben 28th and Adam 30th the team came in 8th place. Not far behind came Eddie 35th, William 40th, Freddie-Ray 48th, Myles 61st, Joe 64th, Rhys 67th, Rory 68th and Edward 77th.
In the u/15 girls race we showed our excellent depth.Our A team was led home by Poppy in 6th, Eadie in her first year in the age group 7th and Rebecca in 8th for second place overall. Our B team of Emily 10th, Ruby in her first year in the age group 11th and Ella 14th came 3rd. Our C team of Ciara 15th, Tatum 17th and Bertie 25th came 4th. Jess 27th and Allanah 31st completed an excellent team performance.
In the u/15 boys race it was Harvey 2nd just beating Archie 3rd both having excellent runs and with Henry also in his first year in the age group 14th they finished in 1st place by just 2 points and were 24 points ahead of the 3rd team. The B team with George 20th, Josh 23rd and Cosmo 25th was not far behind and they were the 1st B team to finish. The C team of Oscar 28th, Tomas 43rd and Kit 50th competed well and it was another excellent team performance.
In the u/17 women’s race, which was run with the senior women, it was Lois who stepped p an age group to lead the team home in 21st (4th u/17) Amber 105th 16th u/17 and Alex 111th 18th u/17 the team finished in 3rd place. Well done to Amy u/20 who came 84th with a record 154 finishers.
In the u/17 men’s race the team and moving up an age group Patrick was 21st, Henry 22nd, 23rd Joe and Baxter 28th to bring the team home 7th.
In the u/11 boys race Tom finished an excellent second and brother Freddie 9th out of another record field of 62.
Well done again to all the team and to the officials and marshals that made an excellent meeting happen.
Message From Keith Donno, organiser of the Brighton 10K held on Sunday November 18th.
Hi – just want to say a huge thank you to all club members who came along to help out on Sunday. Feedback on marshalling and helpers has been 100% positive and the event could not happen without your time and support.
From Tom Ulliott, Vets Cross country team manager
Southern Vets Cross country champs, Sat 8th Dec at Horspath, Oxford – REMINDER!I’ve had a very low response from our vets so far for this event . As it stands we can field a complete, and strong MV50 team, have ONE name for the MV40 team and no ladies whatsoever for any of the FV age groups!! Surely we can field teams in some of the other age groups? Let me know if you are available and want to run please.
Amber wins a place at LSU
Congratulations to Amber Anning who has achieved a full track and field scholarship to Louisiana State University. We look forward to following your progress in the US collegiate system. The next stage in your great career.
Paula’s Page
Paula Blackledge has kindly agreed to write about some of the groups training at Withdean. Part 1:The Tuesday night long distance group- Open to all!
If you’ve ever been to the track on a Tuesday night you will probably have seen Tony and Sam there with their stopwatches- coaching their marathon/long distance training group. In fact if you had visited the track most weeks over the past 20 years you would have still seen the two of them there, come rain or shine! Tony Plank and Sam Lambourne (The Jog Shop) are themselves extremely experienced marathon runners with personal bests of 3.01 hours and 2.18 hours respectively, and they welcome adults to their training group irrespective of their ability. Each week they put together a session of track repeats with any overall volume of about 6,000m, always ending with a mile (4 times round the track). They’re tough sessions but the group is great, and often that is enough to keep you going.
I caught up with Tony and asked him for his top tips for anyone taking on a marathon. He said “Getting yourself out the door is often the hardest part so joining a group is a good idea. Accumulating a lot of time on your feet is key, and where possible do a lot of your training off road as it is kinder on your body.”
Sam and Tony’s group is open to members and non-members of the club. The sessions are on Tuesday nights at Withdean from 7pm (warm up) for a 7.15pm start, meeting at the finish line. Normal gate fees apply.
Brighton and Hove Race series?
Other local running clubs have annual race series based on runners completing a number of races or parkruns over the year. Points are then allocated based on finishing position, improvements, or any number of possibilities. If there is an interest within Brighton and Hove AC for this to begin next year, then I am more than happy to administer this. If you are interested or have ideas on how this could be organised then let me know:paula_blackledge@yahoo.co.uk
Message from Fiona Patterson
As a club who works closely with kids and teens in Brighton, I wanted to share with you a project I am involved in, in the hope that you may be able to share with parents of athletes and other contacts.
The project is called Brighton5, which was set up by a local mum who was going through a very turbulent time with her 13 year-old daughter last year.
Brighton5 is bringing local teenagers together to create and produce video content that will be distributed through schools and colleges. Teens will share their stories in a positive, creative and safe environment to gain an understanding of issues that affect their mental health such as device addiction, self harm and negative body image. They will learn skills in production, animation and music. They will build relationships and work with expert adult mentors. It’s the best Saturday job they will ever have!
Brighton5 is official partners with Sussex Police, three local sixth form / tech colleges and three of the largest comprehensive schools in greater Brighton.
They launched a crowd funder on World Mental Health Day. If you get a moment, have a look at the video –crowdfunder.co.uk/brighton5
(I am sorry, I did not send this out in time to be part of the crowdfunding, Mike)
I would be so grateful if you could share this with as many of your contacts as possible. If you know of any groups we should connect with, please let me know and I will forward to the Brighton5 team.
Thank you in advance
Fiona Paterson
(Fynn and Keira Paterson-Jewell’s mum)
@thebrighton5
England Athletics: Get involved in coaching
Wow! Since the launch of our #GoCoach campaign we have seen an amazing 700 coaching course bookings through our website! Including just under 500 registrations for existing coaches to our development workshops. Not booked on yet? For more info head over to:https://gocoach.englandathletics.org.Thanks you to everyone who has contributed this month. As always, please send anything that might be of interest to club members to:brightonreport@gmail.com
I rely on you to let me know what’s going on – I’m getting old you know and can’t keep up anymore!