GALLERY: Chichester athletes fare well at southern cross-country

The southern cross-country championships at Stanmer Park, Brighton, saw clubs represented from Norwich in East Anglia across the home counties right down to Cornwall and the Channel Islands.

The event is second in importance for the whole season, only surpassed by the English national championships at Parliament Hill Fields, London, next month.

There was strong Sussex representation in all ten races in the programme, culminating in a fine win for Ben Tickner and a third place from Brighton Phoenix team-mate Jon Pepper in the senior men’s race.

Chichester had one of their best-ever turnouts across the age groups with a number of athletes inside the top 100 finishers, generally considered to be a fine achievement.

See Lee Hollyer’s gallery of picture from the event, above

Under-17s and under-20s

Going by the season’s form so far, Chichester reckoned before the start of the day it was in the under-17 age group where they had the best chance of a high team and individual placing – and neither the men’s nor women’s squads disappointed.

Fresh from her Sussex schools win just ten days previously, Rose Ellis had the confidence to place herself just inside the leading group of 20 runners after negotiating the first steep hill.

Surrounded by a host of individual county champions, Ellis gradually made inroads into the top 15 and at one stage a top-ten placing looked on the cards.

In the end she had to settle for a fine 12th place, beating many fancied athletes in the process, including Sussex rival Sophie Markwick from Hastings by a clear margin of 50 seconds – compared to only four seconds between them in the schools chanpionships.

Behind Ellis there were equally-good runs from Charlotte Reading and Amber Westron, who crossed the line virtually together at the finish in 37th and 38th place with a resurgent Saskia Gardam less than a minute behind in 62nd and reserves Holly Beaton 130th and Rosie Riedel-O’Brien, in her first major championship, 142nd.

The team placing was even better than anticipated as their sixth spot was the best in any age group in the club’s history at these championships. They were beaten only by the likes of Windsor, Aldershot, Bracknell and Blackheath and were in front of Southampton, Tonbridge and Herne Hill.

There were not such high expectations in the men’s race but the five-man squad all performed with credit to fill 13th team spot and be crowned leading Sussex club, beating close rivals Lewes, a repeat of their triumph in the Sussex championships.

Again it was a Chichester athlete who led the Sussex runners home with Casey Keates in a fine 34th place. Harry Lyne was 96th and there was excellent packing from Harry Pink in 114th, Adam Croad 122nd and Will Kallaway 123rd, the three separated by just 11 seonds at the finish.

Chichester had three runners in the under-20 group and again provided the first Sussex finisher with Harry Leleu running a well-controlled race to finish 28th. He was in sight of the leaders for much of the race and just about a minute from the top ten after nearly 30 minutes of tough running.

Also doing himself justice was Conrad Meagher in 61st in probably his best race to date, making him fourth over the line for Sussex.

In the women’s race, Hannah Croad finished a well-judged race in 30th for Chichester behind Aldershot-based winner Amy Griffiths, who showed she had fully recovered from collapsing at Goodwood in the Hampshire League in November when she was affected by a virus.