Eastbourne Rovers aces help Sussex to English Schools Cross Country success

The event brings together the best athletes in each of the 46 counties in England to compete for the honour of being the best in the country.

Among the Sussex teams, eight athletes from Eastbourne Rovers gained selection. Even be chosen to represent your county at the prestigious event is a success in itself as the top athletes from each county had to battle it out in qualifiers on a local school level to earn their place on the start line.

The top six finishers out of the team of eight scored points.

Conditions were dry, and some might say rather kind underfoot compared to previous muddy events at the venue. However, runners were challenged as they negotiated many narrow twists and turns, while withstanding a fierce bitterly north easterly wind.

Kicking off was the Intermediate girls race (Years 10 & 11) where Raya Petrova had an impressive run placing 25th (1st Sussex). Daisy Connor ran strongly in 44th (5th Sussex) and late call-up Evie Lennard didn’t disappoint, placing 197 out of 281 county athletes. Evie has another year in this age group.

Together, the Sussex team impressively achieved the 3rd team place (281 points).

Byron Roberts showed immense resilience in the Junior boys’ race (Year 9 & 10). After an incredible cross country season, Byron was struck with injury and illness over recent weeks, but still made the start line and placed 5th from Sussex, contributing towards the overall 2nd place for the team.

For the intermediate boys race (Year 10/11), three talented Eastbourne athletes raced well tactically among the vast field of 330 top county runners. First home from Sussex was George Armstrong Smith (41st), followed by Fin Lumber-Fry (50th) and Ben Wright (159th).

All three athletes will remain in the same age group next year should they qualify.

Fintan Pearce ended his cross country season in style in the senior boys’ race (Year 12/13), placing 4th in the Sussex team. He was also part of the David Minter Wigan ‘team of eight team’, a trophy awarded to the first county to have all eight runners finish (excluding the top three placing counties).

Other worthy mentions go to the Sussex junior girls’ team (Year 8/9) for taking the bronze and senior girls’ team (Year 12/13) for the gold in a superb overall set of results for Sussex.

As the cross country season comes to a close, other Eastbourne Rovers athletes ran at the final East Sussex XC League fixture at Pett. In addition, some of the Year 7s and 8s have their SE schools cross country on Saturday.