Rain, rain and more rain - but Eastbourne Rovers reign in the cross country

In true cross country style it was rain, rain and more rain for the Sussex Cross Country Championships at Bexhill. It didn’t deter runners from across the county turning up to represent their clubs on the muddy and hilly course. There were some incredible performances from Eastbourne Rovers with some great achievements from the junior section shining through. Coach Jenny Brown said: “The young athletes have been specifically training towards the championships and we’ve been training on the Bexhill course in similar conditions in preparation for the event.” Fin Lumber-Fry ran a supreme race tactically to clinch the county title in the under-13 boys’ race. He held his position behind Raphael Kelly of Brighton & Hove before taking the lead on the final lap to win by a considerable margin. The U13 boys’ team of Fin Lumber Fry(1st), Ben Wright(11th) and Jonah Messer(21st) clinched silver, closely behind Brighton & Hove in 1st. Teddy Jones of Rovers ran a strong race in the U13 category(25th). The U13 Eastbourne Rovers girls put on strong individual and team performances with Freda Pearce 4th, Raya Petrova 6th & Lexie McClean 8th. They were denied gold by one point by Brighton & Hove. Rovers were one point ahead at halfway, but Brighton won with a strong finish by one of their girls. Rovers junior Katy Brown also ran well in the U13 category(18th) in her first race back from injury. In the U15 girls’ race, Isabelle Chappell continued her fine form in 12th and in the U17 girls’ race Ellie McClean ran impressively for 7th place. Team mate Connie Hannam (18th) had a gutsy run in her championships debut. Rovers’ U17 boys ran strongly with James Jewell 6th, James Stephen 10th and Ben Brown 15th. They claimed silver. It was a very close race between Lewes AC, Eastbourne and Worthing. Eastbourne were just three points behind a strong Lewes team Others to race well representing Eastbourne Rovers juniors included U15 boys Ilya Korchev (16th), Kaleb Berhane (28th) and Fintan Pearce(30th). U11s Joshua Webster(9th), Fox Andrews (15th), Byron Roberts(17th) and Ayana Reid(15th) all showed their hard work in training is paying off and are going from strength to strength. Interested in joining Rovers? Visit the website, www.eastbourneroversac.co.uk