Results_

A beautiful,sunny but windy day in Beckenham for the South of England Championships, on a dry extremely undulating grassland course saw two outstanding medal winning Phoenix performances from Katherine Haslip and Owen Wallek.

Photos here - Full race video links can be found below on the results listing

Injuries and illness prevented full teams from starting, but Phoenix were represented in the Under 13, Under 15 girls and Under 15 and Senior men by a total of 9 athletes across the board.

Despite only becoming eligible for the Under 13 age group a few weeks previously, Sussex County 2nd placer Katherine Haslip not only turned the tables on the winner of the Sussex race, but ran strongly in the leading group from the start of the one lap race and with others struggling as they emerged from the woods, Katherine stormed to an extremely creditable 3rd place. Her final, powerful,uphill drive almost got her 2nd place, but the earlier leader from Jersey Spartan AC who was struggling in the last 100 metres, just held her place at the line ; both athletes finishing in the same time. With still 2 years in this age group there is plenty of future potential for the Andy Bone coached athlete.

Three Phoenix under 15 boys, all coached by Bruce Warren, lined up for the twice delayed start of their race, which in the cold wind could not have helped any of the competitors. When it finally got under way, Owen Wallek, baulked at the start, charged his way through to be in the leading group at the first turn. Raphael Read and Matthew Noakes in behind him. Owen was never out of the top 5 all race and heading down the final slope before the uphill finish was leading the field and was misdirected by a marshall. But he quickly recovered the place he had lost only to be overtaken by a super speedy uphill finish from the winner from Medway & Maidstone. Sportingly, Owen acknowledged that the wrong turn he had taken didn't affect the result and congratulated the red-vested winner after the race. Good sportsmanship all round as the 3rd placed athlete from Colchester admitted that it would have been an injustice if Owen had lost out to him after the marshalls mishap. Matthew Noakes ran a patient race starting in the middle of the 200+ pack and picked-off runners all the the way round the course to gain a place in the 60's which is definitely an achievement in this high class event. Esme Palmer-Malins was our only representative in the equivalent Girls race and stuck to her task well to take a creditable top 100 place in a race that's second only in importance to the National Championships in England.

The mens team were in for a very tough afternoon with 5, fast, hilly laps to contend with over a 9 mile course which probably felt quite bit longer than that, in a field of almost 700 runners. We didn't have quite enough starters to field a scoring team, but to get all four home well inside the top half of the field deserves a well done to all of them.

Results shown below

The Sussex Cross Country Championships returned on Sunday 9th January with a solid performance from Phoenix Athletes.

First on the board was an impressive performance from Under 13 Girls athlete Katherine Haslip in a closely contested from start to finish against Brighton and Hove AC’s Julieana Walsh. Walsh, who came into the race having won all league fixtures this season, was victorious, but Katherine, who is still officially U11 (but able to compete up an age as she has already turned 11) gave her a run for her money.

In the U15 boys race with Owen Wallek retained his fine form to win Championship Gold and Jude Clayton (Brighton & Hove AC) Silver.

Also unbeaten in the league iss another Brighton Phoenix athlete, Miles Waterworth. He kept the winning streak to take the Under 17 men’s title, followed by Henry Yelling (Brighton & Hove AC) and Charlie Wright (Lewes).

Samuel Leitch (Worthing District Harrier) won the Under 20 men’s race with Crawley’s Joshua Hobbs second and Liam Dunne (Brighton Phoenix) third. Crawley AC won the team Gold.

In the senior men’s race was William Cork (Brighton & Hove AC), unbeaten in the league this season, and the 2016 winner Finn McNally (Brighton Phoenix). However, it was Horsham Blue Stars’ athlete, Jacob Cann, who was victorious. Tomer Tarragano (Brighton and Hove AC) was second and in bronze place, Finn McNally. McNally was the first of many successful Brighton Phoenix runners to finish and as a result, they took both team Gold and Silver. The Brighton & Hove AC team were third.

Words edited from Kate Matthews report sussexathletics.net/author/km/

Congratulations to Bobby Searle for her win! Great performances, all! 

Well done, Berlin Marathoners! 

On what looked like being a drizzly and damp Sunday morning for the DIY, virtual Ringmer duathlon the weather turned out ok for a small but perfectly formed multisport posse. 

Liz created the course based on the cancelled Ringmer event that we were hoping to do. The start was staggered so that everyone finished each leg more or less together with transitions neutralised, although more time might have been spent together had some of us not taken wrong turns here and there...but everyone raced the distances if not the courses!

All that remained was to have a drink, a roast and a chat before what, for some, was a gruelling journey on probably the busiest day of the year on the roads surrounding Brighton! 

Many thanks to Pauline, Alex Bonzi and Dan for support and bike security! It was also good to see Alex out on his bike again after a long layoff.

As we can't search the results by club, please get in touch if you're missing on the results below and we'll add you!

Fantastic race and evening to celebrate the life of Andrew Brooks, much loved club mate...in his memory and linked to the event Club Members raised over £3000 to buy three defibrillators. 

In a big turnout of 38 runners plus many marshalls, photographers and supporters, congratulations to everyone involved but especially the Feltons, Lydia and Hannah, first and second respectively in the handicap race, Bobby Searle, fastest woman in 33:25, and Simon Heath fastest male in 27:41. 

Thanks to Liz and team for organising such a memorable event. 

RIP Andrew Brooks.

Kirsty Bunning, silver in her age group, and Val Avella (5th) have excellent races in the Eastbourne Middle Distance triathlon in extremely hot conditions.

The 10th Phoenix 10k, and first competitive race in Brighton for a long time, was won by Finn McNally in a great time of 30:44 with a strong contingent 15 Phoenix athletes all doing well on a warm evening in front of countless Phoenix members marshalling and supporting to ensure the race went off well in these strange times. 

Liz Halliday finds time from her coaching responsibilities to win the womens virtual aquabike and Geoff Manns wins the mens in the fourth event in the Club Championship. 

Six Phoenix members competed in the Mid Sussex Sprint Triathlon, with additional interest as it is part of the Multisport Championship. Everyone raced hard, especially Gill, who decided one loop of the bike course wasn't enough, so did two!