Harriers hurry in Hove and Eastbourne – Hastings handicaps are spot on – HY ladies run in London Stadium

HAILSHAM HARRIERS

Hailsham Harriers had a busy evening with the club having a big presence in two costal towns, Eastbourne and Hove.

Runners from seventeen local running clubs fill the far end of Eastbourne seafront, to take part in the Tempo Last Leg Relays - a running event with a twist, where teams of 4 runners each run one relay leg finishing with the fifth leg ran by the whole team.

The overall finish time is taken as the last team member crosses the line. Each leg is approximately 3kms (1.77 miles) from Eastbourne water works, heading out along the seafront towards the tennis courts at Fisherman's Green, before turning and heading back.

With a total of 64 teams, the atmosphere, on a very blustery evening, was that of excitement, high spirits, great club camaraderie and friendly competition. A sea of 24 Hailsham Harriers made up 6 teams for the evening compiling of three men's teams, two mixed teams and a ladies team.

Hailsham Harriers won the mixed team category, the team producing a fantastic result, placing sixth overall in a time of 54:49. The team consisted of Graham Woolley, Alissa Ellis, Los Burrett and Lianne Leakey.

Also running for the Harriers on the evening were: Graham Purdye, Tom Bilton, Andy Ruffell and Simon Haddon in 1:00:53, Chris Shoult, Ben Lockie, Sam Unwin and Carl Barton in 53:55, Hannah Duebert-Chapman, Katy Reed, Wendy Robson and Charlie Long in 1:04:48, Mark Pope, Tom Price, Chris Little and Robin Warwick in 1:00:24, Colin Burgess, Pete Daws, Maria Stanford, and Katie Manley in 1:21:10.

Hastings Runners won the Men's and the Over 50's category with Eastbourne Rovers taking the win for the Ladies. Hailsham Harriers would like to say a big thank you to Wes Mechen and his incredible team of volunteers for a fabulous evening.

Along the coast in Hove, on the same evening, eighteen Harriers took part in the Phoenix 10K, hosted by Brighton Phoenix, which marks the 8th race within the Sussex Grand Prix, a series of twelve races where Sussex running clubs compete against each other to win individual and team prizes.

The 10K course is an out-and-back, fast, flat course which runs west towards Shoreham on the promenade, past Hove Lagoon, and out towards Shoreham Docks where the race turns at 5km returning to the finish at Hove Lawns. With a gusting 25mph headwind, 605 runners took part in the race with many achieving their best 5K times on the return half of the race due to the strong tail wind.

With a fantastic team turnout of 18 Harriers, first Harrier home saw Rob Chrystie cross the line in a spectacular time of 37:26, followed by Helen O'Sullivan in 43:49 with Audrey Haddon, shaving off 4 minutes from her time last year to run an impressive personal best of 44:35.

Mark Bassett produced one of his fastest 10K times since 2019 to finish in 45:13 with Leeland Pavey also running a 10K personal best in 47:26. Gary Smith ran a speedy time of 47:56 with Steph Bassett storming across the line in 51:19, just 12 seconds away from her personal best. Bill Fraser, who ran the Rye 10K five days previously, finished in 52:20, whilst Michelle Hollands also ran a new 10K personal best in 55:16. Frances Delves finished in 57:29 with Lisa Phillips-Horner 59:02, Julie Deakin 59:08, and Lou Lou Williams 59:12 battling to finish within seconds of each other.

Club treasurer Darren Gillett flew to a sub 60 minute 10K in 59:47 also making that a personal best time. Julie Lewis-Clements was all smiles as she sprinted to the finish line in 1:01:16, whilst one of Hailsham's newest members, Cathy Gilling, had a superb run in 1:02:15. Claire Hope crossed the line in 1:06:25 and finishing up a superb evening of racing saw Harriers club legend Roberto Proietti greeted to a black and red finish funnel from his team mates as he finished in 1:09:39.

For the Phoenix 10K runners, medals were replaced by a donation from the entry price going to their partner charity, the Brighton-based Clock Tower Sanctuary.

Race 9 in the Sussex Grand Prix is Hailsham Harriers flagship race - The Hellingly 10K to be held on Sunday 17th September. Entries can be made by heading to https://register.enthuse.com/ps/event/TheJohnFauldsHellingly10k

- HELEN O’SULLIVAN

HASTINGS RUNNERS

The first woman and man home in the Hastings Runners Club Championship 5k Handicap were Julia James and Ashley Brooks.

The seafront event proved so popular that a record 112 entrants pinned a start number to their green and black tops.

The fastest three women – Fleur Record-Smith (in a time of 21min 10sec), Jenna Levett (21:39) and Jo Lambourne (23:10) – and men – Ashley Vora (17:20), Kieran Price (18:42) and Stuart Johnstone (18:55) – all finished behind James and Brooks, but such is the nature of a handicap event.

Over the town’s parkrun course, the final starter Vora overcame almost all of his handicap to pass 100 runners and cross the line in 12th.

Other efficient overtakers were Price, who passed 92 of the field, Trevor Briggs with 90 (and a personal best time for the distance), Stuart Johnstone 89, then Joe Cruttenden and Joe Moore 86.

Those figures were possible because, rather than a mass start, the likely fastest runners joined the back of a mostly orderly queue, dispatched at fiendishly clever intervals devised by coach Simon Linklater, of PBrunner.co.uk fame, to engineer the unlikely outcome of all 112 runners crossing the line at the same moment.

That didn’t happen, of course – although Krista Barzee’s time of 29:15 was exactly as predicted by Linklater.

At peak flow, however, the finishers funnel team accommodated 97 runners (87 per cent of the field) crossing the finish line at a rate of one every 1.4 seconds.

Hastings Runners chairman Nick Brown was justifiably proud of the event.

“The turnout was a great advert for the club,” he said.

"A superb job was done by all the volunteers, especially timekeepers Susan Rae and Andrew Shipilov, and the funnel team of Simon Weatherley, Colin White, Ben Sallows and Martin Noakes for preventing a pile-up!

“We also welcomed 11 new members taking part in their first HR race – Albert Clark, Debbie Clark, Chris Fowler, Mya Gower, Lindsey Jones, Jenna Levett, Guy Ramage, Matt Ripley, Steve Speer, Jake Stewart and Darren Tuppen.”

Hastings Runners welcomes new members of all abilities aged 12 and over for fun, training and competitive running. Visit hastingsrunners.co.uk

NEIL JEFFRIES

HY RUNNERS

HY Runners took on the New Romney 10k in very windy conditions.

Ross Skelton placed second in 31:49, Matthew Isden earned himself a two-minute PB in 44:10.

Todd Fitz-Hugh finished in 45:01, Becky Mabon 46:11, Nicky Stiles 46:16, Rachel Wigmore 47:41, Fiona Norman-Brown 48:24, Chris Castleman 49:40, Deb Read 49:52, Chris Wigmore 52:22, Holly Wigmore 1:07:59 and Michelle Harrod also achieved a PB in 1:14:50.

Miley Wigmore won the children's mini race.

Meanwhile the HY Ladies took the opportunity to run in the London Stadium before spectating at the Diamond League fixture hosted at the venue.

Competing in the 5k race was Sonni Pine, Ivy Buckland, Lisa Buchanan, Jenna Harmer and Emily Sims.

JENNA FRENCH