Saturday 6th January 2024

All the elements of cross country at it’s finest did not stop our six hardy Harriers from enjoying an afternoon of racing against Sussex athletes in a bid to win county medals on Saturday, 6th Jan💛💙

With so much mud on offer after weeks of non stop rain ☔️, chilly temperatures and add to that a tough course (10K for the men and 8K for the ladies) Bilts ⚽️, Los Jellybaby 👶🏼 Kev Morris 💪🏼, Jayne 👃🏻. Abs 🌷, Tinks 🧚🏻 and Julie 🐔 gave it their all.

The racing at Bexhill Common started at 11am with the Under 11 boys charging into the mud for their one mile route.  They were soon followed by the under 11 girls, under 13’s, under 15’s and under 17’s running a variety of distances.

Usually the women’s race 🏃🏼‍♀️ at Saturday events starts before the men but at the Sussex Champs it’s men 🏃🏾‍♂️ before women as the under 20 and senior men set off around the challenging course at 1:30pm.   Bilts  ⚽️, Los 👶🏼 and Kevin 💪🏼produced fine performances on every lap despite the energy zapping conditions and tough hills.  Los 👶🏼 finished first Harrier home in 46:48 (57th) followed by Bilts ⚽️ in 49:46 (68th) and Kev 💪🏼 in  68:00 (92nd)

In true Harriers spirit our Men’s Vice Captain 👨🏻‍✈️- Los, and Bilts joined Kev for his sixth and final brutal lap, seeing him over the line in true team style 🥰 

The Senior women’s race (which included the individual under 20’s contest) was the last race on a day where the weather suddenly dropped in temperature ❄️ and the mud had properly been churned up 😬 A field of just 52 ladies competed in the senior women’s race this year.

Tinks 🧚🏻 crossed the line first Harrier home in 41:46 (28th) followed by Abi 🌹 52:21 (43rd), Julie Chicken🐔 52:53 (44th) and Jayne 👃🏻 60:06 (50th).  Our ladies team were all smiles through the finish funnel although extremely muddy.   

Hugest congratulations to our black and red teams that ran and flew the Harriers flag against ten Sussex clubs with a mahooosive BIG shout out to the Morris family, certainly our heroes on the day and one mighty tough family 🙌 

Thank you to Fluffy 🐌, and Ben for cheering everyone on, holding the jackets, watching the dogs 🐾 and collecting the various items of clothing on each lap 🔥 

A massive thank you to HY Runners and Sussex Athletics 👏🏻 for the awesome marshals and putting on a great event.