Chichester athletes turn in fine displays for Sussex at Loughborough

With each of the 44 counties in England plus regional teams from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, any placing in the top 100 is a cause for celebration. In this context, the fact that four out of the five athletes obtained a top 60 placing was a fine achievement with the fifth runner a more than creditable 134th in the senior men’s race.

Under 20 men

With Chichester having won team gold at the Sussex championships in early January, it was no surprise that all three scoring members of that team were selected to represent the county at Loughborough.

Inspired by a tremendous fifth place by county champion Tomer Tarragano from Brighton, the Chichester trio all performed above expectation.

Will Broom has put last year’s injury troubles behind him in recent weeks and left many more fancied runners in his wake to finish in 24th while Ned Potter, runner-up in the first Corporate Challenge, excelled himself to cross the line in 49th in his first year in the under 20 age group.

With three Sussex men home, there was a battle to be the fourth scorer for the team with a quartet of runners packed within half a minute of each other and all well inside the top 100.

In the end it was Brighton’s Samuel Leitch in 71st who just squeezed in ahead of Tony Nisbet 79th, Chichester’s Leo Stallard 84th and Joe Clayson 86th.

The result was a fine 8th place for the Sussex lads with 149 points, beating many more fancied counties in the process.

Senior men

The disappointment for Chichester was that Harry Leleu was not able to run on his home turf. However this gave the opportunity for Will Boutwood to don his first ever Sussex vest with the selectors’ faith paying off as it did with the whole Sussex senior squad who finished in a medal winning 3rd place the highest placing for the senior men for more than 30 years.

As with the under 20’s, it was an inspired individual performance which set the tone with ultra-endurance runner Tom Evans swooping home in third place. With three more runners in the top 40, Sussex were looking strong and only had to wait until 103rd for their 6 scorers to complete the team total of 256 points, only beaten by the North East on 203 points and Yorkshire on 221.

Less than a minute behind 6th man William Cork of Brighton, the last two Sussex men came into sight, with Callum Upton of Lewes in 133rd and Boutwood hot on his heels in 134th.

This gave Sussex the distinction of being the first county to have all eight runners home with Sussex officials thinking this may be the first time ever in the event’s history.

Senior women

The performance of the senior women’s squad was another cause for celebration for Sussex with in-form Beth Garland repeating her form shown in the National championships in Nottingham two weeks previously.

County champion Nicole Taylor who runs for Tonbridge in club competition, was a fine 13th followed by Worthing’s Emma Macready, and Emma Dixon from Brighton & Hove.

Next into sight was Garland in 60th place and with their last two scoring runners 82nd and 89th, once again Sussex packed all their scoring six into the top 100 and their total of 310 points was good enough for fifth place in the team rankings and capping a superb day’s competition for Sussex, especially in the senior races.