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A winning weekend for Lewes AC at Pett and Lewes
With two challenging races clashing over the weekend of the 12th March it was down to club members to rise to the occasion at both events. It was the last race of the Sussex Sunday Cross Country League at Pett and the challenging Moylman Marathon that starting and finished at Lewes.
At the Cross Country race at Pett the challenge was to hold off the teams from the other clubs to win the league title for the 9th time. The two leading and chasing clubs to Lewes were Hasting AC and Hailsham Harriers and both were anxious to steal the Lewes Crown.
With a very large turnout of Lewes AC club members competing in the Lewes based Moyleman Marathon on the same day it was down to the 17 Lewes AC stalwarts at Pett to hold off the chasing teams and secure the league win. This they did in great style although having to concede second place to Hastings AC at Pett. Across all six races Lewes scored 10 points to the 14 scored by Hastings AC and 18 by Hailsham Harriers.
The Pett event was the last race in the series that started in October with the first race at Snape Wood at Wadhurst. This first race was followed by a wide variety of courses located at Eastbourne, Hellingly, Ashdown Forest, Heathfield and finally at Pett.
Pett being the last event in the series the individual medals were awarded in addition to the presentation of the League cup to the Lewes club. Showing age is no barrier to competing in cross country events all the individual medals presented to Lewes AC runners were in the older age groups. There was a clean sweep of medals in the men aged over 50 with Jonathon Burrell in gold position, Dominic Osman-Allu silver and Ian Fines bronze. The first two in the men aged over 60 were Andrew Chitty with gold and David Prince-Isle with silver.
The women individual medal winners were Sally Norris with the silver in the women aged over 35 and a silver medal in the overall category. Helen Sida won gold in the women aged over 45 and Karin Divall silver in women aged over 55.
As the cross country stalwarts were winning the Sunday Cross Country League and individual awards at Pett other Lewes AC members were having a great day running in tough Moyleman marathon. This event started and finished at Lewes and took in all the hills that surround Lewes. Leading the way was Mike Ellicock from Lewes AC who won the event for another time in a time of 3 hours 4 mins and 19secs.
The Moyleman event also involved a half marathon relay with two runners changing over at the half way point at Itford Farm. Lewis and Helen Sida from the Lewes club were the first man and women team to finish in a time of 3 hours 13mins 50 secs. They were only just beaten by 2 seconds by the all-male team of Jonny McCormack and Paul Weir. The third relay team with a time of 3hours 18mins 23 secs was the Lewes AC team of Mike Green and Andrew McLennan.