News_
U13 Girls excel as Phoenix top the medals at County Cross Relay Champs
Wednesday 3rd October 2012
Leading the way to three gold medals and three bronzes were the U13 girl’s team. The way that they performed, you would never know that all three of the girls competing in that team were cross country novices. Naomi Fonteyn was given the task of opening for the team on leg one and was certainly not scared to show what she could do. She took control of the race from the start and came home in first place (second fastest leg of the day) to hand over to Chloe Watson who kept the team in the hunt for the first county cross medal. Almi Nerukar then took up the running on the final leg to power home in the fastest time of the day and secure a marvellous team gold. To think this team was only put together a few days beforehand. Hopefully the other girls in the U13 age group will take heart from this and join their team mates in the first of the cross country league meetings on the 20th of October at Goodwood.
The U15’s boys were always going to find it a little difficult having all just moved up an age group but this did not stop them coming away with a bronze medal with a fine run from Archie Davis (second fastest of the day) pulling his team up from 6th on the last leg.
The U17’s Phoenix men's team really are the dominant force in Sussex this year, and this really showed with the team coming away with gold and bronze. New team member Spencer Thomas looks the real deal and committed himself fantastically in his first outing for the club, with Sam Kitchen and Billy White (fastest leg) bringing the team home with the medals.
The Senior Men went into this race as the defending champions and unbeaten all season in the Sussex relays. But they had to work a little harder to retain their title after the record breaking exploits of last year. Dan Stepney got the team off to a good start coming home in 6th place, where he handed over to Ben Tickner who was like an animal hunting down his prey. He got all but one of the places back, coming home in the leading time of the day 11.55. Max Pickard then consolidated the position with the team less than 10 seconds adrift from Brighton for the lead. Josh Guilmant then put in a classy 11.59 (second fastest and only third athlete to break 12 for the course) for a convincing win, as Hastings came through for 2nd and Brighton 3rd.
The Men’s V40’s were just looking to have a good day out but were pleasantly surprised to find that they had worked their way into the bronze medal spot with Donald McClelland and Dave Powell topping and tailing the team with strong runs.
Paule Kremer, Kathryn Harnett (V35) and Anita Jones (V35) running for the Senior Women’s team are more used to long triathlons than short sharp cross country runs, but all ran well to secure 7th spot, with the Vet Women going one better with 6th.
UNDER 13 GIRLS (c 2800 metres)
1 Brighton Phoenix A Naomi Fonteyn 11.09, Chloe Watson 11.44, Almi Nerurkar 10.45 33min 38sec
Fastest Laps: 1. Hannah Cook (Has) 10.42; 2. Almi Nerurkar (Phx) 10.45, Naomi Fonteyn 11.09
UNDER 15 BOYS (c 2800 metres)
3. Brighton Phoenix A Ollie Johnson 10.17, Harry Swindells 10.33, Archie Davies 9.15 30min 05sec
Phoenix N/S Will Russell 11.36, Joe Kelly 11.06
Fastest Laps: 1. Stephen Ferroni (B&H) 9.14, 2. Archie Davies (Phx) 9.15, Luke Cooper (Has) 9.17
UNDER 17 MEN (c4000 metres)
1 Brighton Phoenix A Robbie Fitzgibbon 13.13, Jake Alger 12.57, Billy White 12.32 38min 42sec
3. Brighton Phoenix B Spencer Thomas 13.17, Will Thompson 13.22, Sam Kitchen 13.33 40min 12sec
Fastest laps: Billy White (Phx) 12.32, James McKenzie (Chi) 12.45, Jake Alger (Phx) 12.57
SENIOR MEN (senior unless stated) (c4000 metres)
1. Phoenix A 49min 45sec
Dan Stepney 12.54, Ben Tickner 11.55, Max Pickard 12.57, Josh Guilmant 11.59
Phoenix N/S: Dave Carter 13.16, Keith Alger 14.25, Ryan Elson (U17) 14.25
Fastest laps: Ben Tickner (Phx) 11.55, Josh Guilmant (Phx) 11.59, Ross Skelton (Has/U20) 12.10
VETERAN MEN OVER 40
3. Phoenix A Don McClelland 14.12, Malcolm Hughes (v50) 15.36, Matt Honey 17.29, Dave Powell 14.29 61min 46sec
SENIOR WOMEN
7. Brighton Phoenix A Paule Kremer 17.24, Kathryn Harnett (v35) 18.20, Anita Jones (v35) 17.30 53min 14sec
VETERAN WOMEN
6. Brighton Phoenix Liz Halliday 18.20, Deb Friis 19.32, Hildi Mitchell 19.22 57min 14sec
