In the hours leading up to the Sussex Festival of Athletics, it looked like the event would be a windy wash out.
However, as the first field events got underway at the K2, Crawley, the rain cleared and with the change in fortune, the athletes rose to the occasion.
The personal bests kept coming shooting several athletes up the national rankings. One of these being U17 Lewes pole vaulter, Gemma Tutton, whose 9cm PB of 3.90, is a new Sussex record and puts her number 1 in the UK.
It was a brilliant day for pole vaulting in general. Isaac Lancaster (U17) went 3rd in the UK with his 3.50cm (PB) jump as did U15 Yuna Hadlow with 2.30cm. Otis Schorr-Kon’s PB of 4m makes him 7th U20. All 3 are Lewes athletes.
A short distance away the high jump was taking place where Sussex ended the day with four U17 boys ranked
in the top ten. Now number one is Brighton and Hove’s, Thomas Wells, after leaping a 1.90m PB, Will Sutton (Crawley) is 4th with 1.85m, Ollie O’Regan (Crawley) 5th 1.80m and Eastbourne’s Jack Usher 9th with 1.70m. Worthing’s Emma Finlay (U15) was also in fine form jumping 1.50m (she is 9th in the UK).
Sussex also faired well in the javelin. Elizabeth Korczak’s throw of 46.87m on Saturday was enough to make her U20 number 1 in the country but she decided to better this with 47.30m at 
Loughborough on Sunday. Saturday was also a good day for Brighton and Hove team-mate Rachael Wall in the Under 17 category. She broke the 40m mark for the first time with a throw of 41.39m taking her second in the UK. In the Under 15 girls, Eloise White (Brighton and Hove) threw a PB of 36.80m making her 3rd in the UK and U13 boys Charlie Gossage (Crawley) is 5th after throwing 27.71m.
It was great to see county athletics back after many months of obscurity and uncertainty. A massive thank you to all the officials and volunteers, who worked tirelessly throughout, and well done to the athletes who turned out to be part of the sport we love. Here’s to a summer of more competitions.
More PBs at Stretford
Archie Davis and Beth Kidger from Brighton Phoenix were again in great form at the BMC races at Stretford a week ago.
Both had already set personal bests the previous weekend and they repeated the medicine with Archie winning the “A” 800m race in 1:46.65s which lifts him one place ahead of his coach Joel Kidger in sixth place on the Sussex All-time list and currently sixth on the British Ranking lists so far this season.
In the “D” race club mate Luca Bigg clocked 1:50.56s.
Beth stepped up a distance to the 5,000m and finished a fine second place in 15:53.60s which is also sixth on the Sussex All-time lists.
Another athlete in winning form at Stretford was Crawley’s, British League Athlete Niclas Baker who won the “A” 400m in 46.37s.