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Mud, mud.... glorious mud
Tuesday 12th January 2016
Mud, mud....glorious mud!
It would have been good to see more Phoenix white vests getting splattered in mud in the Sussex County x-Country Championships at Bexhill, especially in the junior races where we have a large membership but not many attending races. However all those that tuned up did well in the muddy conditions and there were several individual and team medal winning performances.
The U11's started the proceedings, first in for Phoenix was Sam Checkley having a great run to finish in third place, followed in by William Muzio and Sasha Denny, with Sasha showing great determination in still finishing despite losing her shoe to the thick mud on several occasions.
Next up were the U13 girls with Eloise Nicoll matching Sam Checkley's bronze medal, Eloise was neck and neck with the winner from Bodyworks for the whole race and just lost out in the sprint finish with the Hastings runner coming with a late surge just to beat Eloise to second place. Eloise was closely followed by Alice Wright in 4th place, then Emily Muzio 15th , Ciara Muzio 16th and Rachel Berry 22nd. The team took silver medals, just 2 points behind Hastings who won gold.
The U13 Phoenix boys were led home by Alex Brothwell with a fine 6th place, followed by Ben Cooke(14th), Joe Checkley 22nd, Ned Howes 25th and Eddie Harrison 43rd. The team took bronze medals, beating 4th placed Brighton by only 1 point, which shows that fighting for every place can bring reward.
Almi Nerurkar was the third Phoenix runner to win an individual bronze medal after just being beaten on the line in the U15 girls, Almi was followed in by Holly Luscombe who had another good run to finish 8th.
The Phoenix U15 boys were led home by Joe Luscombe who finished in 15th place, followed by Fenton Bingham(21st), Zach Elbourne 26th and Asher Dolton Martin in 39th.
There was only one Phoenix athlete in each of the U17 races, Charlotte Matthews had a good run finishing in 10th place in the U17 women, with Aiden Briffett hoping to make the Sussex team with his 7th place in the U17 men.
Although starting with the senior men, the U20men ran a shorter distance and Billy White had a good run and finished in second place to win the silver medal.
There were individual gold and silver medals for Phoenix runners in the senior men's race with Finn McNally winning his first County senior x-country title, beating fellow Phoenix runner Jon Pepper into second place. Finns winning margin was the largest in the races history. They were followed in by Patrick Acye(14th) Jose Luceron(18th), Dave Carter(21st) and James Miles(38th) who completed the Phoenix team who won the silver medals, beaten to gold by 2 points. James was closely followed in by Paul Wishart(39TH), Paul Wear(53rd) and Andrew Haig(87th).
The Phoenix women were led home by Erica Martin in 12th, closely followed by Bobby Searle(13th) then Hannah Carey(25th) , Deb Friis 39th and Hildi Mitchell(49th) with the team finishing in 5th place.
Thank you so much to Bruce Warren for this report
(Pictured: Finn running to glory)
