Megan's latest medal came two weeks after her silver medal performance in the National event and four weeks after her Inter Counties bronze. It showed she had peaked to perfection, as the lightly-built 14-year old track specialist, who is not too fond of cross country, had avoided the early season league fixtures and in December had been beaten into third in the county championships.
The schools title went to Southern u17 champion Bedfordshire's Nicola Sykes and Megan's third place finish took her within 7 seconds of gold. Teammate Sara Luck shrugged off recent ill health to place 14th, 11 places better than last year, and the Havering Mayesbrook girls' efforts ensured team gold for Essex in the Intermediate Girls' event.
Megan's run earned her selection for the International Schools event in Dublin in three weeks and she will be joined there by club mates Katie Richardson and Ross Clarke whose fine runs earned a coveted top eight finish and an England vest.
Katie Richardson had also been in superb form recently, with top ten finishes against older opposition in both Inter Counties and National events and her sixth place in the junior girls race, and England selection was a just reward for a season which has seen her improve tremendously. Her performance also contributed to Essex's team gold. But in many ways Ross Clarke's performance was less expected. Although Ross's form had been improving rapidly, with a good result in the recent Schools Inter County, the focus had been more on team mate Ashley Reece who had won that event and had looked best placed to score well. But Ashley has been suffering from ill-health in the last few weeks which forced him out of the National event's two weeks ago and again led to his withdrawal on Wednesday night from the Schools event. In Ashley's absence Ross grabbed the limelight to place seventh at Brighton and secure selection for England in the Dublin International.
Also in action for Essex at Brighton were Lauren Clark, 205th in the junior girls race, Ria Lyons who placed 115th in the senior girls event and Martin Heys who was 128th in the senior boys competition.
Megan Foley
Ross Clarke
