Athletes from clubs across the county made their way to Lee Valley stadium last weekend for the Southern U13/U15/U17 Indoor Championships. There were several excellent performances and personal bests but disappointingly, for a regional Championships, in some events athletes only had to turn up to win a medal.
Crawley's Alessio Anah had a stunning series of races to take the under-17 men's 60m Hurdles title in a time of 8.19s. Meanwhile Lewes pole vaulting star, Gemma Tutton, who is now back in the UK after two years in Spain, soared over 3.60m for her first Southern under-17 win.
Haywards Heath Harrier under-13, Jonathan Parkin won the High Jump with a Championship Best Performance of 1.40m and the Shot Put, where he was the only entrant, with 7.16m. His club mate Arun Khursheed was a in a head to head with just one other runner in the U13 boys 800m, and came out tops in a time of 2:32.58.
Brighton and Hove U15s Amber Purcell and Fionn O'Murchu were both double medallists. Purcell struck silver in the Long Jump with 5.02m and returned for a bronze in the Triple Jump with a leap of 9.91m. O'Murchu also came third in the Triple Jump with 9.58m, before taking to the track for another bronze in the 800m clocking 2:20.94.
Horsham's Hari Brogan leapt a PB of 1.90m in the High Jump for a silver medal and Will Sutton (CRA) took the bronze in the same event, with a PB of 1.80m.
Carrying on the stellar Pole Vault tradition of the county, Lewes under-15 Hannah Russell claimed silver with a PB of 3-metres as did Crawley's Leo Woolgar-Golds with 2.30m in the boys event. East Grinstead's Cameron Wells secured his U17 Men's podium spot with 3.80m for bronze.
Last year's U17W Long Jump champion, Cleo Tomlinson (HBS) was unable to defend her title, but she was back on the podium in third place with a best of 5.21m. Eastbourne's Harriet Armstrong leapt out to an indoor best of 10.77m in the Triple Jump for her bronze.
Crawley's Muna Okorie had a great start to 2020 equalling her outdoor PB of 11.01m for bronze in the U15G Shot Put. Her club mate Ethan Curran also earned a podium spot in the U15B 300m, where he was third in a time of 39.13s.
In the U13G Shot Rebecca Roberts of Worthing threw a PB of 8.07m for the bronze medal.
There were several other promising performances including 60m hurdles personal bests and fourth and fifth places in the final for two of Crawley's first year U17's. Isabella Lehtinen and Noa Maoundus could barely be separated at the finish line and were both given timings of 8.97s.
See the full results HERE.
Photo of Gemma Tutton