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Medals in the mud
Monday 3rd March 2014
Medals in the mud
The final Sussex League x-country league race was held at Bexhill on Saturday 1st March and the course, which is normally very muddy, was even more challenging than normal following weeks of rain. Just staying vertical and finishing with both shoes was an achievement!
Being the last race of the season, both individual and team medals were up for grabs and it was the U13 girls who started the day winning both individual and team golds. On the day the race winner was Almi Nerurkar followed by Naomi Fonteyn in 2nd, Holly Luscombe 7th, Saoirse McGuinness 16th, Francesca White 23rd Connie Jankowski 24th and Leanne Battmann 25th. Almi won the individual league gold with Naomi winning the silver and the Phoenix girls team winning the team gold through Almi, Naomi and Holly. It must, however, be noted that although only three runners score in the team all runners contribute towards the team success as every Phoenix runner that finishes ahead of a competitor can assist with the team score. The girls have managed to field several runners in each race and all should be congratulated.
Unfortunately attendance hasn't been so good in all races in other categories. In the U13 boys there were only two Phoenix runners, where the ever present Joel Luscombe and Zac Elbourne finished 17th and 22nd, with the boy's team finishing 9th place in the league.
In the U15 girls race again there were only two finishers. Charlotte Matthews had a fine run to finish 2nd and the ever present Anna Berry did well to finish 22nd. Although only in the first year of this age group, Charlotte's run helped her to secure individual league bronze, with the team finishing in 5th place.
Oliver Johnson was the only Phoenix runner in the U15 boys race and had an excellent run to finish 2nd. This helped the team secure league silver medals. Although not running, as the individual medals are awarded on the best three races, Reuben Hoyte won the individual league bronze medal.
Another fine 2nd place on the day went to Jake Alger in the u17 Men, narrowly losing out to the individual gold medallist. The team finished 5th overall.
The ladies were led home by Erica Martin in 18th placing her silver in the individual senior women's medals. Despite the also valiant efforts of Anita Jones 46th, Hildi Mitchell 62nd and Amanda Mello-Costa 76th the ladies finished 8th, which will probably result in a division 2 place next year. The veteran ladies team finished 11th.
The senior's men team started the day only a few points away from silver medal position and well clear from the 4th place team, so at least a bronze medal looked guaranteed. However with no senior runners in attendance it was left to the veteran runners, not for the first time, to try and secure a senior team medal position. Unfortunately despite their efforts, with Haywards Heath fielding a strong team they just missed out on bronze by 10 points, finishing with 884 to the Haywards Heath 3rd place 874. The team were led home by Bruce Warren (V50) in 18th followed by Donald Maclellan (v40) in 34th, Nigel Herron (v40) 52nd, Jon Wright (v50) 68th, Jim Whitelehgg (v40) 70th, Andrew Neighbour (v40) 97th. The veteran's team did however secure the league bronze medals in the veteran's league and Bruce Warren won individual bronze in the v50 category.
There were also several Phoenix runners representing Brighton District in an inter area race at the start of the day. Results have not been published yet but well done to all those Phoenix runners that took part.
For full results http://www.sussexathletics.org.uk/results.php#407
A massive thank you to Bruce Warren for this report.
