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Team Phoenix brutally efficient at the Sussex Road Relays

Thursday 13th June 2013

A late review of the Senior Men’s Sussex Road Relays and a look back over the past years results

If anyone thought that the senior men’s team would become complacent after decimating the Sussex Road relays 16 year old record last year they were in for a shock even without Senior Honey Badger and individual course record holder Ben Tickner absent the team was looking flightily good on paper.
The great thing about the Sussex Road Relays is it brings together all Team Phoenix’s athletes whether you’re an track star, marathon man or gearing up for the tri season, you are treated to just over 2 miles of speed induced pain fortunately the only real pain going to be experienced was by anyone wanting to take the title away.

You may have missed the significances of how good a result this was if you had read the Sussex Athletics report so hear is the blow by blow account.
Leading into this race it was obvious that the main threat was going to come from the talented Hastings team and that we would be in for a good race, but with several withdraws of their key members it became clear that it was going to be Phoenix vs Brighton show down for the gold.

With the rumour that Hastings big gun Adam Clark would be on first leg Phoenix chose to blood there latest super talented U17 Robbie Fitzgibbon who has been a revelation over the last year. After not looking too happy at having to run C team last year Robbie jumped up about 10 levels in performance and produced what must be an U17 record of 9.52 chancing down the inform Sam Bennett of Lewes AC with Brighton’s Ian Crowe-Wright coming in a strong third. Darryl Hards who just missed out on a spot in the A team after having a fantastic first proper winter back running since his junior days. Darryl suffered a little in the first mile not being used to the speed of a fast start just coming off cross country training but still came home in 10.13 for 5th place. With Jon Tindell (C Team) having his first taste of a Sussex relays championship off the back of a very heavy training session running 12.19

Dan Stepney after being given the nod for the final spot in the A team showed he was going to give it everything and by far had the best run of any race outside of an 800m showing that his new approach is paying off. Dan went off in hunt of the Lewes athlete Josh Burgess and it was not long before he was out in front and pushing hard, by the end of his leg he looked white as a sheet, although this had far more to do with his willingness to push himself to the max than the light snow showers we were experiencing.

At this point Sam Kitchen (U17) was making good progress for the B team and was secretly locked in a battle with club mentor Joel Kidger running in the Crawley team they finished dead even in a time of 10.49, a good run for Sam. Joel’s course PB of 9.44 will however be safe for a couple more years.

Will Durkin took over the running on leg 3 and it was much the same, pedal to the metal and with no one but himself to beat it was battle the elements and put some more time into the chasing teams, he finished in 10.00 flat a very good run!

Jon Pepper has tasted nothing but Gold in Sussex competitions was eager to keep his 100% winning record in all team events over the last couple of years and this also served to test his speed ahead of the season’s main target the Brighton Marathon going off hard it was clear Jon was in very good shape finishing in a fresh 9.41 and still with a 14mile marathon effort to do! Second fastest time of the day.

Josh Guilmant took over for the penultimate leg and although not in the form of last year still brought a 9.58 out of his locker, a run of 9 years unbroken in this event. Although with the improvement of the team a time that would rank as one of the fastest overall legs in years gone by is now only an entry requirement to the Phoenix A team.

The B Team were chopping and changing in position still trying to hang on to the bronze they won last year Finn McNally put in an impressive 10.16 off limited training with Triathlete Wes Mechen having his first taste of the relays and probably the shortest race he has ever run is a solid 11.49 off a long bike ride. Max Pickard and Sean Scott rounded off the B team with strong performance and a credible 6th place against a much improved opposition from the other competing county teams.

Last up for the A Team was track star Charlie Grice who has been pilling in the training in the lead up to an important track season where he intends to establish himself in the senior ranks, and he took off with just that fiery intent, like a hamster denied his wheel for a week he put in the fastest time of the day 9.37 Boom! This gave the team a final clocking of 59.08 and a massive 4m.02s win over Brighton with Lewes coming in for a well deserved Bronze.

Christ Hospital Relays – Sussex Champs results from 2005 onwards

2005
5th PHOENIX ‘A’ 65:46
Dave Carter 10:41
Chris Edwards 11:29
Josh Guilmant 10:44
Joe Isherwood 10:39
Marcus Mickelthwaite 11:21
Dan Stepney 10:52

2006
3rd PHOENIX ‘A’ 65:42
Rob O’Neal 11:28
Matt Barrie (U17) 10:42
James Miles 11:24
Josh Guilmant 10:20
Sam Rigby (U17) 11:23
Dan Stepney 10:25

N/S PHOENIX ‘B’
Russell Pitman 11:17
James Miles 12:25
Carl Svoboda 12:49
Chris Webb 12:45
Steve Wainright 12:23

2007
3rd PHOENIX ‘A’ 63:52
Rob O’Neill 11:57
Dan Stepney 10:15
Dave Carter 10:23
Lewis Hards (U17) 10:57
Josh Guilmant 10:01
Matt Barrie (U17) 10:19

N/S PHOENIX ‘B’ 79:06
Finn McNally 11:45
Andrew Seivewright 13:38
Barnaby Savage 12:21
Terry Avey 13:53
Peter Hards 13:59
Andrew Haig 13:30

Fastest Laps
Senior
2nd Josh Guilmant 10:01
Under 17
1st Matt Barrie 10:19

2008
1st PHOENIX ‘A’ 63.34
James Miles 10:59
Matt Barrie 10:12
Dave Carter 10:31
Finn McNally 11:16
Josh Guilmant 10:12
Dan Stepney 10:24

N/S PHOENIX ‘B’ 75:25
Miles Davidson 12:19
Gus Kennedy 12:52
Calico Wells-Burton 12:27
Michael Murphy 12:34
Gary Judd 11:33
Andrew Haig 13:40

2009
3rd PHOENIX 'A' 63.23
Gus Kennedy 11.23
Matt Barrie 10.05
James Miles 10.45
Finn McNally 10.46
Dave Carter 10.29
Josh Guilmant 9.55

Fastest Laps
Senior
2nd Josh Guilmant 9.55

2010
2nd PHOENIX 'A' 61.36
Sam Wade 10.31
Max Pickard U17 10.33
Finn McNally 10.20
Dan Stepney 10.15
Charlie Grice U17 9.54
Josh Guilmant 10.03

PHOENIX 'B'
Jonas Wienecke 11.12
Miles Davidson 11.47

Fastest Laps
Under 17s
1st Charlie Grice 9.54
3rd Max Pickard 10.33

2011
1st Phoenix 'A' 61.08
Will Durkin (U17) 10.14
Max Pickard 10.53
Finn McNally 10.09
Josh Guilmant 9.55
Tom Hopkins 10.01
Charlie Grice (U17) 9.56

Phoenix 'B' 70.12
James Miles 11.04
Ben Warren (N/S) 10.00
Sam Wade 10.30
Jake Elliott (U17) 10.36
Gary Thayre 12.46
Gary Durman 15.16

Fastest Laps
Senior Men
1st Josh Guilmant 9.55
3rd Tom Hopkins 10.01
Fastest Laps
Under 17 Men
1st Charlie Grice 9.56
2nd Will Durkin 10.14
3rd Jake Elliott 10.36

2012
1st Phoenix 'A' 58.27 Record
Will Durkin (U17) 9.57
Ben Tickner 9.19
Max Pickard 10.06
Charlie Grice 9.41
Josh Guilmant 9.49
Jon Pepper 9.35

3rd Phoenix 'B' 63.06
Sam Wade 10.02
Jose Luceron 10.36
Jake Elliott (U17) 10.29
James Miles 11.12
Darryl Hards 10.20
Dan Stepney 10.27

Phoenix 'C'
Robbie Fitzgibbon U17 11.04
Tobbias Bremer 11.11
Will Thompson U17 10.49
Robin Fitzgibbon 11.22

Fastest Laps
Senior Men
1st BenTickner 9.19 Record
2nd Jon Pepper 9.35
Under 17 Men
1st Will Durkin 9.57
2nd Jake Elliott 10.29
3rd Will Thompson 10.49

2013
1st Phoenix 'A' 59.08
Robbie Fitzgibbon U17 9.53
Dan Stepney 9.59
Will Durkin 10.00
Jon Pepper 9.41
Josh Guilmant 9.58
Charlie Grice 9.37

Phoenix 'B' 65.48
Darryl Hards 10.13
Sam Kitchen U17 10.49
Finn McNally 10.16
Wes Mechen 11.49
Max Pickard 9.47*
Sean Scott 12.54*

Phoenix 'C'
John Tindell 12.19

Fastest Laps
Senior Men
1st Charlie Grice 9.37
2nd Jon Pepper 9.41
Under 17 Men
1st Robbie Fitzgibbon 9.53
2nd Sam Kitchen 10.49