This season is proving to be a record breaking one for Sussex athletes and although we have barely reached the half-way mark at least six Sussex records have tumbled and another equalled.
The women’s Heptathlon has been beaten twice after Debbie Woolgar (Worthing) had held the record since 1989 at 5380 points.
In April Elise Lovell from Hastings, who now competes for Havant, set the ball rolling amassing 5400 points in Florence and just one month later Katie Garland (Brighton & Hove) scored 5487 at the National Championships at Bedford. Windy conditions put this record in doubt but it has now been confirmed as a legal performance so it is the new Sussex record. During this competition Garland had a windy long jump well over 6 metres which does not qualify for record purposes but her best legal jump on the day of 5.95m moves her up to third place on the Sussex Top Ten long jumps.
Javelin throwers have contributed two records Scott Staples (Crawley) improving his own U20 mark with 65.29m and Brighton & Hove’s Liz Korczak setting a new U17 record of 45.99m.
At the weekend Ben Hawkes smashed the U20 Hammer record at Bedford with 71.55m while at Crawley Katie Bristowe (Crawley) clocked 11.22s in the 80m U17 hurdles for a new mark and back at Bedford another Crawley athlete, Natasha Purchas equalled the U20 Pole vault record clearing 3.90m.
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