Forget all about the Costa del Sol, it's now Lewes AC's Gemma Tutton that reigns in Spain.
Tutton - a first year under 15 athlete - has broken a Sussex County record and put herself second on the UK All Time under 15 pole vault rankings, with a leap of 3.70m.
Sebastian Rodger from Eastbourne made a cracking start to his track season at the Loughborough International meeting on Sunday in the 400 metres hurdles.
In recent seasons Rodger has been chasing the standard for major championships until well into the season but with a fluid run in good conditions on Sunday the Eastbourne runner hit the “European Standard” with an impressive 49.80s.
Rodger said “It’s nice to run sub 50 seconds, I know it should be normal, but to achieve the European Standard so early in the season makes me very happy.”
Following last weekend’s successful County championships where twelve Championships Best Performances were set and it looks like 39 English Schools Standards were achieved, it is back to League athletics this weekend and the Loughborough International meeting.
The Loughborough match is on Sunday and Sussex have two athletes in the GB Junior team as well as several athletes in invitation events.
With the arrival of lovely sunshine on the Sunday of the Sussex Track and Field Championships, came the tumbling of more Championship Best Performances.
The calm and warm conditions on the second day were a huge improvement on the previous afternoon’s rain at the K2 Leisure Centre, in Crawley.
On her home track Crawley AC's Natasha Purchas got the ball rolling in the U20s, breaking Livvy Connor’s two-year record in the Pole Vault with a soaring 3.75m. It is the second year in a row Purchas has broken a record after taking the title in the U17 age category in 2017.
On a day when the weather switched from dry and pleasant to breezy, wet and cold a quartet of records fell at the Sussex County Track and Field Championships.
The morning at K2, Crawley started out cloudy but still and just like last year it was the throws rather than the track where the first Championship Best Performances (CBP’s) were recorded.
Entrants for this weekend’s Sussex Track & Field championships at the K2 Leisure centre at Crawley are up for the sixth successive year.
For, what it is believed is the first time more than 1000 entries have been received from 640 athletes. However the increase is in the young athlete’s age groups as there is still a general trend amongst senior athletes to give the championships a miss.
Sussex athletes struck gold and silver in the BUCS championships at Bedford over the weekend.
County 400m hurdles record hold Bethany Close forsook the hurdles to race on the flat and was a convincing winner of the 200m in 24.38s for her Bath University.
In his first year at these championships Joe Fuggle from Wadhurst, running for Loughborough, could not manage to contain Declan Gaul from Edinburgh but finished an excellent second in the 400m hurdles in a personal best of 52.56s.
Despite losing many of their top athletes to the BUCS on Saturday the Crawley team did well to avoid the relegation area in the first of this season’s British Athletics League matches at Yeovil.
In what was a very tight Division two match just 70 points separated the top seven teams with Bournemouth winning with 322 points from Havering’s 303 with Crawley finishing just ten points adrift of Kent’s fifth place on 272 points and Crawley placing sixth ahead of Glasgow and Rugby.
What a difference a week makes. In stark contrast to the Lower Age Group, the county's U17 and u20's were competing in cold and breezy conditions for their first 2018 fixture.
In Division 1A, Crawley travelled to Woking where they achieved a 45 point victory, scoring 667.5 to host team Camberley AC and Woking's 622.5.
This weekend’s activities are centred on Bedford and Sale for the leading Sussex athletes.
The Crawley senior men’s team have to travel to Lancashire for the opening fixture in Division three of the British Athletics League on Saturday while at Bedford the annual BUCS championships are being held over three days and many leading Sussex U20 and senior athletes usually contest this event.