Ashley storms clear as boys clinch relay

On a breezy afternoon on the Downs the boys dominated their race when Ashley Williams virtually put the result beyond question on the first of the three 2.8km legs.

Williams breezed clear of his rivals in the first 200 metres and had established a lead of more than 100m after his opening leg, and it was no surprise that Ashley's time for his leg of 9min 28sec was to prove the fastest of the race.

Josh Burgess ran a steady second leg in 10min 24sec and was still well clear of the second team when he passed to Matt Suter, who recorded 9min 58sec, the third fastest lap time.

After Belinda Norris had run a cracking opening leg in the under-17 3x4.8km race in 16min 05sec, the Lewes girls were only headed by a non-scoring Crawley team. Belinda's time was the second fastest lap of the race.

Natasha Collins clocked 17min 25sec and kept her team in contention while on the final stage Becky Hawkes took them well clear, clocking the third fastest lap of the day in 16min 19sec.

There was a silver medal for Lewes in the under-13 3x2.8km boys's championship in which Ben Burgess clocked 10min 37sec despite placing fourth on the first leg.

Sam Bennett, with 11min. 09sec. lifted the team into second place on the second leg, a position that Andrew Wilkinson held on the final circuit in clocking 10min 8sec.

In the under-13 girls's race the Lewes trio of Danielle Collins (13min 20sec), Hattie Robinson (15min 24sec) and Simone Collins (13min 17sec) filled 12th place while the under-15 girls's squad of Jessica Lewis (11min 50sec), Georgia Wells (12min 12sec) and Emily Weaver (12min 02sec) finished in sixth spot.

Several of Saturday's competitors were in action again in the Multi Terrain races on the Downs at Lewes on Sunday but none made a bigger impact than Ashley Williams.

In excellent conditions Williams tackled the five-mile run and led the field a merry dance.

Reigning County and Sussex School under-15 cross-country champion Lewis from the Phoenix Club, who had not raced at Goodwood the previous day, took off from the start and was not sighted again by the rest of the field.

Williams led the chase and it was not long before he was isolated in second place where he remained throughout the race, clocking 29min 00sec to the winner's 28min 07sec.

Fellow Lewes runners Matt Basford (under-17) and Andrew Wilkinson (under-13) filled the next two places, Basford clocking 29min 16sec and Wilkinson 30min 17sec.

The home club's Colin Wibley was the first senior runner to finish, placing fifth in 30min 53sec.

Monica Walton, who has recently started courses at the South Downs College, was the first woman to finish and this under-17 runner, who ran several good 800-metre races for the Hastings Club on the track this past season, finished 10th overall in 34min 12sec, well clear of Amy Carroll from Lewes who clocked 35min 46sec.

Lewes runners were not so dominant in the 10-mile race in which Meried Tekle from Hastings (58min 05sec) was an impressive winner from Phoenix's Dave Carter (58min 30sec).

As usual Dave Robinson from Lewes, who is now in the veteran age group, turned in a good performance, finishing third in 59min 10sec.

Geoff Gray from Seaford had a good run to finish 11th in 63min 14sec while Hailsham's Paul Eccles was the first over-45 veteran, placing 12th in 64min 33sec.

Fellow Hailsham runners Paul Payne and Chris Howarth finished 17th and 18th in 65min 08sec and 65min 47sec respectively while Barry Blackwell from Hailsham was the first over-55 veteran, placing 23rd in 67min 08sec.