A seventeen year old Southwick schoolgirl made history for Sussex in 1952, when she became the first ever Sussex woman to be selected to compete for Great Britain at the Olympic Games, but is she the greatest ever Sussex female athlete? Well before that date Suzanne Farmer was already making waves in local athletics. Her […]
Sussex Runners at the International and World Cross-country Championships
I have tried to list the Sussex athlete’s Sussex club as well their contemporary team. I will concentrate on the senior men then list the Senior women, who did not officially compete until 1973 although there were unofficial races in the early thirties and then follow with the Junior and the Short course races. Even […]
Race between a Runner and a Walker
If someone set a series of World Athletics Records and then topped this with two Olympic Gold medals today they could expect to receive much attention and adulation and receive many invitations to make public appearances. He may not be set up for life but he could expect his fame and good fortune till the […]
The only Sussex Double Olympic Gold Medalist
GEORGE LARNER – SUSSEX’S FIRST OLYMPIC CHAMPION by Alan Buchanan At the 1908 London Olympics, George Larner of Brighton and County Harriers, won the 3,500m Walk and the 10 miles Walk. Those distances were never raced again, so to this day Sussex has a club athlete who holds the two Olympic gold medals and […]
The first Sussex Super Star
ALF SHRUBB – by Keith May Alf Shrubb was born in Slinfold, Horsham on 12th December 1879. His introduction to running came in 1898 when after arriving home from work as a bricklayer he was aware that a fire was taking place at Southwater, some three miles away. A neighbour, Fred Spencer, who was […]
In the beginning
It is impossible to say when athletics started in Sussex, as athletic events were held before Tudor times, and during the reign of Henry VIII. However, I have been helped generally by Peter Lovesey’s “Century of the Amateur Athletic Association” and the 1907 Sussex edition of the Victorian History of the Counties of England. This […]