Cox-rusbridge stars on the national stage
Athletics A total of 10 local athletes were in action on the National stage at Loughborough on Saturday for the UK Intercounties Cross Country Championships with all 10 acquitting themselves with credit in what is regarded as the top rated competition in the calendar.
This year even more were attracted to the Loughborough venue as the championships doubled as the final trials for the World Championships to be held in Denmark at the end of the month. Such is the standard of the fields in all ages groups that any place in the top 100 finishers can be regarded as a major triumph and nine out of the ten Chichester athletes achieved this mile stone with the 10th just a few places outside.
A total of 45 counties sent teams to the event including area teams from Scotland and Wales to make the competition even tougher than the English National held the previous weekend in Leeds.
Under 20 and under 17:
The top place finisher of the whole day for Chichester was Alice Cox-rusbridge in the under 20 women’s race with a fine 62nd place and second Sussex scorer behind county champion Almi Nerurkar from Brighton Phoenix in 14th.
The pair enabled Sussex to finish 12th out of the 40 counties competing. It was in the under 20 men’s race where Sussex had their best team result of the day in sixth place with Leo Stallard and Ben Morton playing their part well in 84th and 94th respectively with Stallard just a couple of minutes outside being considered for National selection over a tough course just short of 10K.
In the under 17 races Maggie King helped her team achieving a top 10 spot with a score of 197 points in ninth place. King more than justified her selection with a fine run in 80th. Ned Potter also finished fourth for Sussex in 123rd place for a team position of 11th.
The closeness of the competition can be seen in that Potter was barely a minute outside a top 20 placing over 5000 metres of arduous running. Worthingbased Ethan Fincham was a speedy 55th in the same race as second Sussex scorer.
13s and under
Those who witnessed the exciting finish of the secondary boys race in North Street, Chichester, at the end of February would have seen Harvey Mcguiness and Fionn O’murchu balling it out to the line. At Loughbrorugh the pair were teammates rather than rivals and both had excellent runs in the under 13 boys race. Mcguiness finished 84th and as fourth scorer helped Sussex to yet another top 10 team placing while O’murchu was close on his heels in 96th. Such id the closeness of competition over the 3000 metres course can be seen that both Chichester boys were barely a minute outside a top 20 placing.
In the under 15 girls race Sussex had their highest position of the day with Bethany Cook from the Eastbourne based Bodyworks club a superb runner-up in the individual race with Chichester’s Olivia Toms 3rd Sussex scorer in 94th and helping her team to just outside the top 10 in 12th place.
Senior men and women:
Loughborough University student Harry Leleu did not have far to travel for the race and took advantage of his selection to the Sussex senior team for the first time following his club record run in the Chichester 10K last month and full justified the faith of the selectors with a senior top 100 placing in 78th and 3rd Sussex scorer in the process helping the six man team to 13th In the women’s race Chichester University student who runs second claim for Chichester was also 3rd in the Buckinghamshire team in 97th place.
The event almost brings down the curtain on the domestic cross country season with just the English schools to come this weekend in Leeds and a couple of schools inter county events to fit in before the end of March.