The sunny weather on the second day of the Sussex Combined Events Championships in Sutton could not have been more of a contrast to the previous day's wind and rain. Eastbourne’s Joe Morris was in pole position in the Senior Men’s Decathlon overnight and he continued to stretch out his lead on day two. Morris, the reigning champion, dominated the competition winning seven events outright. En route to victory he set personal bests in the Pole Vault (3.30m), High Jump, Hurdles and Javelin (52.15m) to beat clubmate Bradley Eisnor by nearly 1000 points with 5562 to Eisnor’s 4563. Hastings Jason Jeffery was bronze medallist with 4437. He like Morris and Eisnor ended the competition with a Decathlon PB.
In the Senior Women’s Heptathlon Brighton’s Becky Owen and her coach and club mate Julia Machin were the two scoring competitors with former Worthing athlete and county Triple Jump record holder, Kayley Alcorn, guesting. Owen posted PB’s in the 100m Hurdles (14.92s), Long Jump (5.24m) and Javelin (32.60m) to win the competition in a new best of 4665. Machin’s score of 4372 takes her to third in the UK rankings for the W45 age group.
Horsham’s Tabitha Lee - the sole U20 competitor - scored a personal best of 2992 points.
For the Masters Women, taking part in an age graded pentathlon, Brighton’s cross-country specialist, W55 Judith Carder, showed her versatility. She won the title and set PB’s in the High Jump, Shot Put and Hurdles ahead of Haywards Heath Harriers Jenny Denyer and Brighton’s Tracey Brockbank.
It was in the younger age groups that the events were most fiercely contested. In the U17 Women’s Heptathlon Crawley pole vaulter Natasha Purchas had led her club mate high jumper Lillie Franks by just 12 points over night with Chichester sprinter Alyssa White in third. Three no throws in the javelin knocked out White’s chances of medalling and brought Crawley’s April Hanslow into the mix.
Franks had gained an advantage over Purchas in the Long Jump and consolidated this in the javelin but for both the 800m was the biggest challenge and though neither bettered three minutes, Franks had enough of a points buffer to take the title. Hanslow had had solid performances throughout the two days before she ran the second fastest 800m of the field in 2:34.52. This time guaranteed her the silver medal and Purchas held on for bronze. It was a 1-2-3 for Crawley with team mate Jessica Lambert in fourth.
Twelve girls had entered the Under 15 pentathlon and it was soon clear that, bar catastrophe, the medallists would be decided between a handful of athletes. Eastbourne’s Calysta Morris led the Long Jump with 4.84m and had run the fastest 75m Hurdles in 12.32s. She was in the lead after three events, however superior high jumping from Worthing’s Eli Middleton (1.47m) and Crawley’s Sasha James elevated them above Morris. Meanwhile Crawley shot putter Millie Noyce’s personal and event best of 10.98m and a 1.38m High Jump pushed her to silver medal position behind Middleton with one event to go. It was the 800m that once again dictated the podium positions. Eli Middleton ran 2:43.66, which was five seconds slower than Calysta Morris but 14 seconds ahead of Sasha James. It was enough to secure Middleton’s victory with a final score of 2505 to Morris’ 2471 and James 2238.
The Under 13 Girls pentathlon was set to be a highlight of the day with Horsham’s Cleo Tomlinson and Ruby Jerges going head to head in their third multi events competition of the season. Both girls had excelled in the 70m Hurdles and Long jump this year. At the Sussex Schools’ Combined Events championships Jerges had beaten Tomlinson in the Year 7 quadrathon – a four-event competition that excludes High Jump - one of Tomlinson’s best events - and the two young athletes had memorably dead heated over 800m.
With fourteen girls entered there were several other athletes who could impact on the day including Horsham’s Isabelle Humphreys – another strong all rounder- and East Grinstead’s Hannah Plumb – the U13 County High Jump champion. Tomlinson started out with a 4.77m Long Jump to Jerges 4.58m. Then Jerges ran a PB of 11.67s in the hurdles to Tomlinson’s 11.99s. Tomlinson gained an advantage in the shot and extended this in the High jump where she soared over 1.44m. Plumb jumped 1.41m and Humphreys 1.35m to Jerges 1.29m. Tomlinson went into the 800m with a 200-point advantage. Jerges ran 2:46.94, just outside of her personal best to come third in that race, two seconds ahead of Tomlinson. However the gap was not large enough and Tomlinson comfortably took the title with a Championships Best Performance score of 2393 to beat Katie Garland's 2009 score of 2335 points. Jerges came second with 2199 points and in the closest result of the day Humphrey’s, with four personal bests out of five, won the bronze from Plumb by just one point scoring 2027 to 2026. It was the last event and for the three Horsham athletes - the second podium clean sweep of the day.
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