Gold for Freda Pearce, Raya Petrova & Daisy Connor – U17 girls race
The SEAA Cross Country Relay Championships took place at Wormwood Scrubs on Saturday 19th October.
Under 17 races consisted of 3 stages of 3k ,whilst the Under 15’s and younger age groups raced the shorter 2km distance.
The venue at Wormwood Scrubs, is situated on parkland adjacent to the Linford Christie athletics stadium. As per true cross country tradition, the course was muddy underfoot with some undulations to challenge the athletes strength and fitness.
Stars of the competition were Eastbourne’s under 17 trio of Raya Petrova(10:31), Freda Pearce
(10:55) and Daisy Connor (10:31) clinching the gold with an immense gap of 28 seconds on 2nd placed team Brentwood. This is particularly impressive as all 3 athletes are the first year in their age category.
It was a close battle for Eastbourne’s under 15 boys team who took the silver medals, 3 seconds ahead of Herne Hill. Fin Lumber – Fry (6:46), handing to George Armstrong – Smith (6:53) with Byron Roberts (6:48) showing an fine turn of pace on the final stretch to take the team from bronze to silver medal position. Worthy mentions go to the under 15 B team where Ben Wright had a stunning run (6:48), Adam Meyer (7:13) and pushing through on the final leg Jonah Messer (7:08). Sadly the C team did not have a 3rd leg runner but that didn’t deter the team spirit and drive for competition for Joshua Webster (7:52) and Archie Franklin (7:32).
Silver for Fin Lumber – Fry, Byron Roberts & George Armstrong – Smith – U15 Boys race
Three of Eastbourne’s talented athletes also competing were Ilya Korchev in the under 17 boys race (10:02), Fintan Pearce with a superb race in the Under 20 category (9:22) and team mate James Stephens returning to competition (10:22).
Strong runs also came from Eastbourne’s under 15 girls team, placing 12th out of 35 teams. Lexie Mclean setting the pace (8:42), Chyna Wai (8:36) handing to anchor leg Evie Lennard pushing through the field (8:12)
Coach Christopher Voice said ‘after the previous weeks racing over their usual longer distances in the league fixture the athletes showed a good turn of pace over the shorter distances and achieved some great performances against the best and biggest clubs in the south of England’
Next up for many of the Eastbourne Rovers athletes is the 2nd fixture in the Sussex Cross Country league at Glyndebourne.