Chichester's cross-country success is tinged with sadness

Despite wet conditions underfoot, there were some excellent competitive displays from clubs across Sussex with eyes on team positions and possible individual selection for the South of England inter counties event next month.

There was an element of sadness during the meeting as athletes, officials and spectators paid their respects to the two teenage Aldershot & Farnham club athletes, Stacey Burrows and Lucy Pygott, who were tragically killed last week in a road accident outside the club’s headquarters in Aldershot.

Many of the Sussex under-17 runners had competed against the girls in club and inter-county events and they were part of the Aldershot team who ran at Goodwood in the Hampshire League in 2014.

Senior and under-17 women

As reigning league champions, Chichester are battling hard to stay in contention in division one of the senior women’s standings while the under-17s, who run in the same race, are also defending their title.

A record field of 130 athletes set off on the arduous 5k course and were soon tackling the steep climb on to the Downs after a couple of laps of the Lancing Manor field.

Chichester were without their strong under-20s, who are at university, and had to do without their top scorer at Goodwood at October, Karina Bennett, who is recovering from injury.

But the club’s top four – three teenagers and a veteran in her late 50s – all packed well to finish within 21 seconds of each other.

Grace Wills had another consistent run to finish in 16th place and sixth in the under-17 age group. Her time of 20min 38sec for the hilly 5k course should put her in the frame for the Sussex team.

Ever-consistent Jane Harrop was not far behind in 21st and well clear of all her rivals in the over-55 category, where she is defending champion.

Chichester University student Alice Wright followed in 24th with Alice Cox-Rusbridge a place behind and just squeezing inside the 21-minute barrier, eighth in the under-17s.

The team total of 86 points gives an aggregate after two matches of 146 points, with Lewes on 106 and Brighton Phoenix on 152 to keep Chichester in the mix for honours.

There was a spirited performance from the B team led home by Sarah Loy in 34th with Florence Smith 64th, Annabel Jeffries 72nd and Nadia Anderson 103rd – but they are having a challenging season as they are the only B team in Sussex in division one of the women’s league.

The C team of Rebecca Brown in 110th, Sue Barty 113th and Liz Wingham 123rd finished in the middle of the pack in division three.

There was good from the under-17s as a 16th from Smith added to the scores from Wills and Cox-Rusbridge for a total of 30 points to win on the day from Brighton & Hove and overtake early leaders Brighton Phoenix to head the overall rankings.

Senior men