Little Common – Bexhill

Saturday 7th January

All the elements of cross country at it’s finest did not stop our hardy Harriers from enjoying an afternoon of racing against Sussex athletes in a bid to win county medals on Saturday, 7th Jan💛💙

With plenty of mud on offer, a howling wind and add to that a tough course (10K for the men and 8K for the ladies) Doug, Leeland, Hannah, Katie, Michelle and Julie gave it their all 💪🏼

The racing at Bexhill 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 all 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 13:30pm.   Doug and Leeland gave it their all on every lap.  Doug finished in 61:53 (104th) but on this occasion Leeland felt unable to continue after 3 laps … we’ve all been there Leeland, hats off to you for giving it a go 💪🏼 and then staying to cheer on our girls 👧🏼🖤

The Senior women’s race (which included the individual under 20’s contest) was the last race on a day where the weather had been extremely testing and the mud had properly been stirred up 😬 A field of just 53 competed in the senior women’s race this year.

Hannah Deubert-Chapman 50:23 (42nd), Julie Chicken 52:13 (43rd), Michelle Hollands 54:20 (46th) and Katie Manley 56:15 (47th) were all smiles as they crossed the finish line delivering strong performances 💪🏼 in what can only be described as a brutal mud fest 🤣 

You’re all amazing 🖤

The Champs were certainly tough for all concerned this year, not just the athletes but especially for the officials, organisers and marshals (who were awesome).  We all know that standing out in those conditions is actually harder than running so a massive thank you and huge round of applause from us to HY Runners and Sussex Athletics 👏🏻