Byron Roberts – Under 15 Boys County Champion
Athletes burst out of the Christmas haze to put in strong performances at the annual Sussex Cross Country Championships on Saturday 6th January 2025. Nearly 500 runners completed the 12 races across the event held at Little Common, Bexhill. With the weather cold and crisp, condition underfoot was typical for cross country.
Under 11’s Emily Petrova, Jessica Webster & Violet Walpole
Starting the day were the U11s, with Emily Petrova continuing her run of excellent form to place 11th in the Girls race. Jessica Webster, returning from injury, was hot on the heels of her teammate, finishing a strong 15th despite several weeks away from training and competition. Violet Walpole (24th) – a newcomer to the Sussex cross country race scene – ran a very well-paced race and showed great promise for the future. In the boys’ race, youngsters Aidan Wai (12th) and Harry Waterson (15th) were rewarded with top 20 places after months of focused and consistent training.
Under 11’s Harry Waterson & Aidan Wai
U13s Ksenia McCrae (15th ) and Poppy Charlwood (31st) battled hard in a tough Girls race and Jackson Walker placed 29th for U13 Boys.
It was a hat trick of medals for the U15 boys who continued their dominance over the age group. Byron Roberts continued a strong season finishing 1st and was rewarded by being crowned the new U15 Boys County Champion. His teammates were hot on his heals with George Armstrong-Smith 2nd and Fin Lumber-Fry 3rd . Collectively, this was the best team score of the day, rewarding the boys with the U15 Boys Team title as well. Spurred on by the leaders, Ben Wright put in a phenomenal performance to place 6th in a very fast race after a long period of injury, followed by Jonah Messer (10th) and Joshua Webster (20th).
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Fin Lumber – Fry, Byron Roberts & George Armstrong – Smith – Gold Team – Under 15 boys
In the U15 Girls race, Evie Lennard placed 13th; Chyna Wai 18th; and Oliwia Zietal (30th) giving them 5th position as a team.
Next up were the under 17 women where a pack of 4 runners broke off at the front early on and tracked each other for a lot of the 5K course. Daisy Connor had a strong race finishing 3rd. Eastbourne won the U17 Women’s Team title with Daisy 3rd, Freda Pearce in 4th and Katherine Brown in 9th.
Katy Brown, Daisy Connor & Freda Pearce -Gold Team Medal – Under 17 Girls
Thomas Petherick came 6th in the U17 Men race and Fintan Pearce secured 4th in the U20 Men’s race. Under 20 Ellie McLean secured an impressive 3rd place.
In the Senior races, Eastbourne runners produced their best performance for many years. The ladies narrowly missed a team medal placing 4th with Jenny Brown 16th,Alison Moore 17th, Magdalena Schoerner 18th and Tasnim Al Siyadi making up the scoring team, supported by Lucy Martin 28th and Rosy Clements 36th. The Senior Men were delighted to clinch a bronze medal with the first six counting as the scoring team: Richard Jones 26th, Luke Tomsett 35th, Stuart Pelling 36th, Ant Anderson 37th, Anthony Davey 39th, Richard Davis 43rd. They were backed up by Liam Gunner 51st, Phil Wood 52nd, Matt Southam 55th, Graham Hollands 64th and Mike Thompson 82nd.
The top 4 from each race were automatically selected to represent Sussex at the UKA Inter Counties at Wollaton Park, Nottingham in March.