Athletes perform well at South of England event

Hastings Athletic Club's senior women at the South of England Cross-Country Championships. Picture courtesy Terry Skelton

Competition was fierce at Parliament Hill in London on Saturday, but Hastings AC held their own in high class company and there were several notable performances.

The highlight was provided by Isaac Elam, who came an excellent ninth in a closely-contested under-13 boys’ race. Elam is in his first season of cross-country racing and is improving all the time.

Carlos Nieto was 39th in the same race and Callum White had a very good run to finish 177th. Adam Morrissy was 184th, Ethan Salmon 220th, Karl Hopkins-Parry 243rd and Ashley Kingshott 262nd.

Hastings AC came ninth in the under-13 girls’ team event after having three runners in the top 50. Maya Ramnarine had a good run to come 22nd, Amalie Primdal also did well to finish 30th and Erica Body was 49th. Evie Clements was 120th and Shannon Hopkins-Parry 127th.

Marcus Ramnarine finished 103rd and Ryan Morrissy 187th in the under-15 boys’ race, while in the under-15 girls’ event, an unwell Ellen Crombie came 80th and Katie Titmuss 194th.

Sophie Markwick was 49th in the under-20 girls’ race, while Pett-based Grace Baker - who was running for first claim club Aldershot, Farnham & District AC - was fourth.

Rhys Boorman had a good result by finishing 59th in the senior men’s race. Stuart Piper was 238th, Jason Johnstone 773rd, Adam Osman 778th and Terry Puxty 886th.

In the senior women’s race, Riz Maslen came 226th, Joanna Body was 359th and Rosy Clements 362nd.

Although the course wasn’t as wet as expected following heavy overnight rain, it was still seriously muddy in places and lots of runners fell.

Hastings AC has the honour of hosting the South East Schools’ Inter-Counties Cross-Country at Bexhill Down this coming Saturday.

The prestigious event will get under way with the junior girls’ race (3,200m) at 12.30pm and will conclude with the senior boys’ run (6,000m) at 2.45pm.

All runners have had to qualify for the event so the standard of racing will be pretty high. The top four from each county in each of the six races will qualify for the English Schools’ Cross-Country Championships.

Several Hastings AC runners have already booked places in the Sussex team for that event, and the likes of Harmony Cooper, Maya Ramnarine, Primdal and Elam will be hopeful of joining them.

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