Ava And Flo Take Gold Along With Ten Other Medals and Amazing Performances At English Schools

Twelve glorious medals and 36 top eight places for Sussex in the blistering heat at the English Schools Champs.

As temperatures soared the first events kicked off on Friday morning at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

The junior girls’ pole vault was one of the first events with Florence Matten hoping to better her silver from last year.

She had to clear 3.60 with the athlete from Staffordshire going out on 3.50. Taking it right to the wire she cleared on her third attempt to win the gold.

Taking place at the same time was the junior boys’ shot put where Sonny Ray-Crisp threw 13.89 for the silver medal.

As the first day of the prestigious competition progressed, there was another medal for Sussex in the pole vault.

This time it went to inter girl, Sylvie Ward, who placed 3^rd with a jump of 3.25m.

Jaiten Best is no stranger to the English Schools Championships having competed, and medaled, several times over the years in the triple jump. Her talent and experience paid off again this year with a PB of 12.38 to take senior girls’ silver.

Day one also saw top eight finishes (the top eight athletes in each event score) by Gabriel Seidel, 4^th in the senior boys’ hammer (52.08m), Klara Novak Wightman, 7^th in the junior girls’ long jump (5.37m), Sophie Bliss, 5^th in the junior girls’ javelin (40.14), Lucas Bowen was 5^th in the inter boys’ long jump (6.50) and Jasmine Clarke Walker (2.85m) and Milly Pile (2.85m) 5^th and 6^th in the junior girls’ pole vault.

Sussex scooped a second gold on day 2 in the senior girls’ steeplechase where Ava James clocked 4.46.52 to comfortably win. In the same race, in the closing stages, Alice Cox made a brave kick for the line to take bronze, narrowly missing out on silver and clocking a huge PB of 4.56.78.

Also clocking a huge PB as well as a silver medal was Florence Goodwin, who ran 9.44.93 in the inter girls’ 3000m.

In the senior girls’ 3000m Molly Smithers took bronze in 9.49.80 whilst Ben Stewart matched this coming 3^rd in the inter boys’ steeplechase in a PB of 4.20.30.

Over in the field, Piper Kelly threw 49.80m in the junior girls’ hammer for silver. The event was won by Adanna Anah, who competes for both Crawley and Sussex AA, but goes to school in Surrey.

Isabella Buchanan battled a very tactical race to win bronze in the inter girls’ 1500m in 4.30.23.

Alice Howie won her 5^th medal in a row with a throw of 54.11 for silver.

Across the whole of day two there were an array of top eight placings including Seren Rowe, 5^th in the U16G 300m hurdles (46.67), Felix Fowler 6^th in the U16B 300m hurdles (40.33), Sonny Ryder, 5^th in the U19B 400m hurdles (57.45), Archie Oates 5^th in the inter boys discus (45.34), Taylor Thom-Watts 5^th in the inter boys’ 3000m (8.52.33) and  Lawrence Graham was 5^th in the senior boys’ discus (42.48).

Pole vaulters Milo Hilborne was 5^th in the inter boys (4.30m), Isaac Machin 6^th in the junior boys (3.15m) and Ava Hayes 6^th (3.40m) and Alice Johnson (3.40) 7^th in the senior girls.

Bethany Naylor Davis was just outside the medals placing 4^th in the inter girls’ 1500m steeplechase (5.06.36) with Elizabeth Hutchinson coming 7^th (5.19.47) in the same race.

Rex Hastings threw 46.47 in the junior boys’ javelin for 6^th whilst Jesse Sobrasuaipiri was 5^th (6.96) in the senior boys’ long jump.

In the 800s Rory Grant was 8^th in the junior boys (2.02.61) and Grace Tuesday (2.15.51) and Emily Carman (2.23.71) were 7^th and 8^th in the senior girls’ category.  

Both days were packed with brilliant performances, PBs and team spirit. It’s an amazing achievement to be selected to compete at the English Schools Champs - well done to all that took part.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers and team managers who made the event possible.