Sussex athletes scooped up four gold medals in the SEAA Senior and U20 Indoor championships at Lee Valley over the weekend plus Crawley’s Surrey sprinter Nicolas Baker who won the senior 200 metres in 21.78s.
Elise Lovell (Havant) was the only Sussex senior winner with a splendid personal best of 6.08m in the long jump, a distance that would have been a new Sussex record had it been achieved outdoors.
The other title winners came in the U20 age group with Brighton & Hove’s Amber Anning, in her first year in the age group streaking to a runaway victory in the 200 metres in 24.64s. The previous day she had run a PB of 7.60s in the semi-final of the 60m before coming fourth in the final. Crawley's Natasha Purchas cleared 3.50m to win the pole vault crown, with club mates Cicely Cole who took bronze clearing 3.10m and Katie Sexton cleared 3.00m for fifth place while Eastbourne’s Daniel Jones Thomas took the shot putt title with 14.81m.
There were silver medals for County High hurdles champion Matt Hewitt in the senior 60m hurdles in 8.48s, Sam Heawood (Crawley) with 15.16m in the senior Shot putt and club mate Beth Crocker in the senior Shot putt with 9.99m and Lillie Franks in the U20 high jump clearing 1.75m. Harry Baker (Horsham) and Jack Harris (Lewes) picked up bronze medals in the U20 High Jump and Pole vault soaring over 2.00m and 4.20m respectively.
There were several other Sussex athletes who gained places in the various finals with George Turner (Crawley) clearing 4.30m for fourth place in the senior Pole vault while big sister Holly clocked 56.38m for fifth place in the 400m. After clocking 1:54.78 for second place in the semi-final of the senior 800m Brighton & Hove’s Tom Niner finished adrift in the final finishing sixth in 2:00.25s and Jessica Lambert (Crawley) also finished sixth in the U20 400m in 61.00 after clocking a pb of 58.19s in the semi-final.
There was also a sixth place for another Crawley/Surrey athlete, Craig Cox, who clocked 23.15s in the senior 200m. Bailey Wright from Eastbourne placed seventh in the U20 60m in 6.91s and there was an eighth place for Brighton & Hove’s Rafe Books in the U20 long jump with 6.10m and Alyssa White (Worthing) who leapt 5.06m in the U20 long jump.
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