South’s cross-country cream are hosted by Chichester

Action from the Hampshire League fixture at Goodwood Picture by Kate Shemilt C141004-6

Gale-force winds and driving rain affected the final race of a day when top national distance club Aldershot & Farnham were joined by strong teams from Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth.

There was fierce competition in all the ten age groups as Reading, Bournemouth and Poole, Salisbury, the Isle of Wight clubs and Jersey and Guernsey joined in the action.

Competing over a longer course than in the Sussex League, the senior women had to run two short 1k laps before moving into their 4k woodland circuit making the 6k a true test of endurance.

Chichester’s Rose Ellis and Amber Westron, although still under-17s, opted to run in the senior event to test their fitness over the longer distance and, with veteran Jane Harrop, fully justified their decision by helping Chichester to fourth team spot overall out of the 20 clubs in the league.

Ellis finished sixth overall and second under-17 out of a high-quality field of more than 150 finishers.

Harrop was next home in 28th overall and first in her over-50 age group while Westron crossed the line less than a minute further back in 43rd and in the top half-dozen under-17s.

Also making the top 100 was Clare Waring in her first cross-country race for Chichester. Other finishers were Sophie Wright in 113th, Julia Hammond 114th. Helen Dean 117th, Frances Carruthers 120th, Maria Wright 122nd, Rebecca Brown 134th, Sue Baker 137th, Sandra Nemorin-Noel 138th, Karen Miles 143rd, Ally Vasilascu 151st.

As expected the senior men’s 9k race started at a furious pace over their short opening 1k circuit before they embarked on two of the 4k woodland laps.

Going immediately to the front was Winchester’s Toby Lambert, no stranger to the Goodwood area having been runner-up to James Baker in last year’s Chichester Half Marathon.

Lambert kept his lead at the head of the race hotly pursued by a group of under 20 athletes from Aldershot and firmer international Jermaine Mays, running for Basingstoke.

At the finish, Mays emerged victorious by the thickness of a vest from Lambert, both runners given the same time of 27min 32sec, a fine achievement as the senior men not only had to contend with the gale-force winds but also driving rain for the majority of their race.