Chichester athletes open 2025 with fine cross country effort

The undulating Bexhill course provided a stern test of fitness and stamina for the club’s squad of 30 juniors and seniors.

One of the club’s successes over the winter has been the strength of the senior women’s team who sit proudly at the top of the Sussex league standings.

The championships on Saturday gave all three age groups a chance to shine in separate races with Chichester dominating proceedings with two individual golds and a bronze.

Molly Smithers showed her form before Christmas by winning the senior league race at Ardingly outright while still an under-17 and she repeated the performace at Bexhill to win her first county championship after a battle with talented rival Ava James from Lewes. Smithers was content to run in the leading pack before gaining a vital few metres in the closing stages to win by just 4 seconds. In the same race Carrie Anelay was a good 13th.

Anya Barrett took advantage of the under-20s having their own race and was perhaps the most surprising winner of the day beating closest rival Amelia Cox from Crawley by 16 seconds.

Equally surpising was the fact this was Barrett’s first cross country win in any age group, reward for years of consistent training.

A strong quartet lined up for a competitive under-17 men’s race and finished just 9 points outside team silver. First home for Chichester was Stanley Wilkes in 11th place with good packing from Noah Collins in 22nd, Kai Lendrum 23rd and Monty Hill 24th.

In the two senior races, there were great individual results althought the disappointment for Chichester was that they did not feature in either of the team standngs.

Imogen Matthews is another who’s shown great league form this season and came away with a well deserved individual bronze, beaten only by talented pair Verity Hopkins and Millie Dickinson. A brave run from Sue Baker saw her finish 39th in the same race.

For the men, no praise is too high for the club’s talisman James Baker who added another top 10 finish with 7th place, just a minute outside the medals after 35 minutes of running over the 10k course.

The 48-year-old has been contesting this rrace for over a quarter of a century and his consistency over that time has been remarkable. Michael Kwoka was next home in 38th with club chairman Jim Garland 56th and Andrew Smith 72nd.

Among the juniors, the club’s under-15s proved the strongest age group with both the boys and girls bringing home team medals. The boys in particular showed great strength in depth with ben Stewart in 7th leading home Max Gayle in 9th and Harry Dunne 12th for team silver behind a very strong Eastbourne squad.

In the same race Joe Stewart led the B team home in 13th with Harry Cruttenden 21st and Ivo Edgar 24th plus reserve Frank James 28th.

In the girls’ race Elodie Hill finished just outside the medals in 4th place but with Isabella Lendrum in 7th and a battling 21st fro Isla Pearson the team finished a fine 3rd, edging Brighton & Hove into 4th.

In the under-13 boys’ race there was good packing from Lucas Bulger in 22nd, Maddox Matthews 27th and Isaac Page 30th for a top 10 team position.

In the girls’ race Abbie Cruttenden ran well as Chichester’s only representative in 29th.

The day’s proceedings started with the under-11 girls’ race and, though there are not officials team medals in the age group, a strong Chichester trio were second overall after Brighton & Hove thanks to good packing from Poppy Alden in 5th, Leah Stopps 6th and Imogen Younghusband 9th.

The Sussex Schools championship takes place at Waterhall near Brighton next Tuesday (Jan 14) while the Sussex Masters at Coombe Farm near Lancing follows on Saturday 18.