The busy cross country season continued last weekend with the South of England Championships at London’s Parliament Hill. Although the sun shone brightly, conditions underfoot were difficult with a dangerous mixture of mud with standing water and frozen concrete like patches. Ross Skelton proved to be the pick of the Hastings AC athletes with a superb 12th place in the under 17 mens event in 21.09. Skelton once again proved to be the best Sussex under 17 man in the event, this should be enough to give him the countywide recognition that his performances this winter deserve. In the same race Max Thomas struggled with the conditions and finished in 82nd place in 23.24.
Grace Baker had a good run to finish in 14th position in the under 15 girls race. Such is the expectation surrounding the 13 year old, who is unbeaten in Sussex this year, that she was bitterly disappointed with her run and had to be consoled by the coaching team. Holding back her tears she explained that she had walked the course prior to the race and had thought it followed a longer route, this effected her pace judgment meaning she left too much in the tank and could not make this up in spite of a strong sprint finish. However she has another year in this age group and next year she will be hopefully stronger and wiser.
The under 13 girls event had six AC competitors with Katie Garland leading home the local runners in 46th in 13.46 with Louise Nash one place behind and given the same time. These were great runs for different reasons – Garland is a nationally ranked multi-eventer using cross country mainly to build up her endurance base and Nash also has another year in this age group, with next year holding hope of improved strength and speed. Sophie Markwick followed in 103rd (14.40), Dorothy Wilson 170th (15.57), Zoe Botting 180th (16.15) & Becky Haggar 212th (18.31). After last years 10th place Stacey Clusker had to settle for a disappointing 44th place, although she has now recovered from various setbacks with illness and injury and can look forward to stronger performances in the major championships to come. In the under 15 boys race Monty Wilson recorded a 124th in 18.24 along with Ryan Higgs 202nd (20.06). The under 13 boys quartet of Luke Cooper (12.34) 37th, Ryan Hodd (12.42) 47th, Anthony Donaldson (13.00) 72nd and Alfie Jeffrey (14.55) 183rd all had strong runs, especially Cooper who has next year in the same age group.
Holly Wheeler underlined her status as the top local senior woman middle distance runner with a fine 35th placing in the highly competitive senior womens event. Whilst in the senior mens race Josh Varney (61.05) was the first local man home in 169th place, with James Climpson 281st (64.32) and Bill Darby 513th (72.07).
