Chichester’s veteran runners give good account at Sussex road relays – and Baker shines at Lewes

The women had the upper hand over their male counterparts. Running as lead-off competitor for the over 40s, Lisa Pemberton continued her fine cross country form of the winter.

Well up with the leading pack of half a dozen in her age group, she handed over to Nicki Bulger who kept up the momentum to give last leg runner Aleksandra Vargin a slender lead over the chasing pack in third place.

Despite having to contend with fast runners from the other clubs, Vargin held on to bring home bronze by a clear margin of half a minute.

In the same race Jane Harrop, a new addition to the over-60 ranks, gave Chichester a fine start on the opening leg with a sparkling time of 13min 34sec for the two-mile course, a time which matched many of the younger age groups.

Nadia Anderson held on to the lead albeit with a reduced advantage to hand over to Helen Dean who was making her first competitive appearance for over a year after recovering from a long term injury.

Dean held off the runner from arch rivals Arena 80 from Brighton until the final mile but could do nothing to stop her rival, one of the best in the county, from edging away to win by 20 seonds at the finish.

Chichester’s silver was a fine reward for all the team’s hard work and a hat-trick of team medals was nearly won by the over-50s, who had to settle for 4th place with good runs from Kim Nelson, Elizabeth Robinson and Emma Wickens.

There was also a creditable result from a mixed team of over-40 Catherine Baker, over-50 Elaine Cruttenden and over 70 Sue Baker.

Chichester’s veteran men also gave a good account of themselves but could not get amomg the medals amid fierce competition from the other clubs. Matt Jolly was the only member of the 2024 over-40 gold medal winning team in action but played his part with another sub 11 minutes opening leg with 10.54, the fastest by a Chichester man on the day.

Rob Stapely ran a solid leg on stage two with over-50 Kevan Watkins bring the team home in 9th setting one of the fastest time in his age group.

The over-50 team finished 13th in a very tight race with Steve Davy, Tim Brown and Sean Rainey in action while the over-60s were 10th thanks to Simon Castrey, Peter Anderson and Dave Reading.

Meanwhile, a squad of 20 Chi Runners travelled to Lewes for the Lewes Downland 10k, part of the popular West Sussex Fun Run League programme, and produced some fine results.

Individually things could not have been better for Chichester, who swept the board winning both the men’s and women’s races as well as the junior one-mile race.

James Baker looked his imperious best by striding home in first place in an impressive time of 35.05 for the undulating off-road 10k course, having a clear minute to spare over the rest of the field.

Also making the top 20 out of a field of more than 450 finishers was Mikeey Kwoka in 18th followed home by Charlotte Reading, winning the women’s race and finishing a fine 24th in the field in 41.32.

Wesley Adams was just four seconds behind in 27th and these four were joined as maximum 10 bonus point-scorers by Fay Cripps, 11th woman home.

Chichester’s points tally of 110 out of 125 was good enough for equal 6th with things very tight at the top of the league and just 13 points separating the first seven teams.

A real bonus came for the Chichester in the junior race where in-form Lucas Bulger had a clear 16 seconds to spare over the rest of the field, all the more impressive as he had been part of the Chichester under-13 boys’ team two days earlier.