Saturday 03 January, Stanmer Park Brighton.
There was a second consecutive victory for the Brighton men’s team in the Sussex Cross Country Championships on a cold winter’s day at a frozen Stanmer Park. The icy conditions made the going faster than otherwise would have been the case but the toughness of the course including the long drag uphill made the race challenging for everyone.
At first glance it looked like the main opposition to a Brighton victory was going to come from Phoenix, but with only four quality athletes the focus switched to Crawley. There were excellent runs from both Keith Newton and Andy Donno. After the opening lap Keith was never outside the leading five, rising to 3rd on the final hill only to be taken by Tom Naylor on the final descent to the finish. Andy Donno started steadily and got stronger as the race went on managing to just hold off Ed O’Brien for 6th place. There were good runs also for James Tomlinson (13th) and Luke Lambourne in his first County Championships as a Senior (14th). The team was finished off with Chris Thomson (18th) and Josh Painter (21st). This proved to be enough to take the team victory, 76 points to Crawley’s 102 and hold on to the Silver Statue of Mercury for another year.
The Brighton and Hove B team were sixth.
For a full set of results please follow this link to the Sussex Athletics website.