In Sussex we have had many athletes and administrators who have spent a lifetime involved in Sussex athletics but there can be few, if any, that can match the length of that of Janis Long from Eastbourne who was born at Eastbourne Hospital on 15th June 1935 and went to Bourne County School and Eastbourne Secretarial College.
My first memory of Janis was when as a tall slim balletic young girl she competed in the Sussex Women’s Track championships on the grass track at Priory Park, Chichester in 1950. Janis won the junior high jump clearing 4ft. 11i. (1.50m) a height that would win many a Senior Southern League event to-day and even then equalled the winning height of Marie Bridgeford (Brighton), an athlete that she would have many battles in coming years, who won the senior jump,.
A talented all-rounder her best events clashed with a period of Sussex athletics when there where a group of extremely talented international athletes like Sue Allday, Maureen Burtenshaw and Maya Giri in the throws and Pat Jones and Marie Bridgeford, also both all-rounders, in the hurdles and high jump and gold medals in County championships were hard come by.
In 1952 when she competed as a senior she won three bronze medals having already won several medals at the Sussex Schools championships in the previous couple of years including an appearance at Bradford in 1952 in the high jump at the English Schools Championships but “although, said Janis it was July it was freezing cold I remember having to wear my tracksuit and overcoat whilst waiting for my turn in the High Jump”.
Although they were not all shiny gold medals they covered well over thirty Sussex and Sussex Schools medals throughout her career that cover more than two decades, interrupted by anaemia and injury.
Janis’s first Sussex senior victory came at Eastbourne in 1953 over the quarter mile in a lung bursting 69.4s and I do not believe she tackled the event again. She lost the mid-1950s battling anaemia, losing virtually all of 1956 and not really returning to fitness until late 1958 although she bravely battled with the affliction in July where she still managed a bronze medal on the shot putt.
In 1959 championships there was a gold medal in the then 80m hurdles as well as silver in the shot putt and a bronze medal in the high jump and there were silvers in 1960 in the hurdles and the high jump and a Sussex record when she won the long jump with a leap of 17ft 5in (5.31m), which would still be a most welcome distance in many a league match event to-day.
During all this time she had been pioneering, with Marie Bridgeford the more general introduction of the pentathlon into Sussex athletics by blazing a trail in the National championships.
Back in 1952, when she was only seventeen, she finished an excellent fifth in the National W.A.A.A pentathlon championship at Ilford and a year later at Birmingham she finished sixth when Bridgeford placed fourth. There was another sixth place in 1954 while in 1955, following a fine second place in the Southern Championship. Long was beaten by 1952 Olympic long jump bronze medallist Shirley Cawley a few weeks later, again at Birmingham she improved her National placing to third with Bridgeford placing fifth.
Anaemia then struck and she had to forgo the pentathlon until 1959 when she placed second in the inaugural Sussex championships behind Worthing’s Pat Jones who was to go on to become an Olympic athlete. Jones scored 3463 points to Long’s 3418 points though it must be remembered that before her problems with anaemia she had scored 3744 in 1955.
In 1961 she won the Sussex pentathlon title and the following year the 80m hurdles but the 1960s were marred by a serious scooter accident that ruled her out of competition in 1963 and most of 1964 and before she had fully recovered she tore her Achilles in 1966 and thus lost another year and had to alter her take off foot for the jumps.
Although championship medals were ruled out, she finished fourth in the Sussex Pentathlon in 1967, and despite her problems she won nearly forty Sussex medals and just how many it would be, were it not for illness, accident and injury.
Throughout this period she has been a regular competitor for her club in Southern League and Inter-club matches plus several appearances in Sussex County teams.
In recognition of her club dedication and the role she played as an athlete and team member she became a life member of the club in 1962.
While she was still an active athlete and was still in her twenties she was to take on the Secretary of the Eastbourne Rovers when Reg Wells moved away from the area in 1965 and she was to hold that post for more the twenty five years. For much of that time she was still a competing athlete and holding down a full time job.
She was also Club treasurer for five years, a job that her father Doug had held when the club were re-formed.
She was elected to replace Bill Ranger as President, a post she still holds, and just last year, 2019, she passed over the task of organising the Club’s home meetings after a couple of bites at that cherry for decades first in conjunction with the Secretaries job and again from 2010 till 2019.