Brighton & Hove’s Bethany Close, competing for Swansea in the Premier Division of the UK Women’s League, chopped half-a-second off Debbie Bain’s thirty three year old Sussex 400m hurdles record in only her second run over the distance.
So inexperienced is she in this event that she ran the “B” race for the Swansea team but romped to victory in a brilliant 60.0sec, more than one second faster than the Swansea “A” runner and now looks certain the be the first Sussex woman to break the sixty second barrier.
British Athletics League
The Crawley Athletic Club team were squeezed into seventh place in the Division Two match at Bedford in what proved a really close and tough match.
Bristol won the match with 328 points from Cardiff on 285 points and then just 41 points separated the other seven teams with Crawley on 246 points just two points ahead of eighth placed Nottingham.
After two matches this leave’s the Sussex clubs in sixth league place.
There were however a host of personal bests for the Crawley team and three winning performances.
George Turner who is still an U20 athlete repeated his victory in the first match by winning the pole vault event clearing 4.40m, the only “A” victory while Leigh Walker cleared 4.00m to win the “B” vault.
Richard Reeks, who popped up in many events during the afternoon won the “B” high jump clearing 1.90m after Dave Bishop cleared 1.95m for fourth place in the “A” event and Reeks also notched up a good second place in the high hurdles with 14.79m.
James Lasis who usually scores high in the discus and hammer events missed his injured big brother Matt and stepped up to “A” string in the hammer throw placing fourth with 51.41m and third place in the discus throw with 46.39m both creditable throws.
Details of Division Four match are not to hand at midday Sunday.