The British Championships at Birmingham this weekend incorporates the Trials for the World Championships in Bejing so it will be nail biting time for Sussex middle distances runners Lee Emanuel and Charlie Grice in the 1,500 metres.
Emanuel, who comes from Hastings, is the only British runner to have the qualifying standard time of 3:36.20s this season but his time was recorded indoors back in February. Grice (Brighton Phoenix) is the second fastest Brit this year with a 3:37.70s and they will clash again but do not only have each other to worry about.
A revitalised Ross Murray, Tom Lancashire and Chris O’Hare are likely to be breathing down their necks and the first two, providing they have the Qualifying Standard this season will book their tickets Chine.
Another in line for a place in the team is Rob Mullett (Lewes) who is the fastest Brit over 3,000m steeplechase this season but he still needs to chop three second off his best to get the standard.
The Sainsbury’s British Championships clashes with the latest round of the Southern Athletics League and this is likely to cause problems for at least the two Sussex Division One clubs this Saturday.
Crawley, who are current League Leaders, travel to Peterborough could lose several of their stars but this will have an even greater effect on the Brighton & Hove team who will be struggling to retain a presence in the top division. They could well be without all-rounder Peter Moreno and star hurdlers/ sprinters Matt Hewitt and Gwilym Cooper for their match at West London.
In Division 2E Eastbourne has to travel to Cambridge while in 2W the Worthing Club has the advantage of a home fixture.
In Division 3W Chichester and East Grinstead compete at Portsmouth, Hastings and Horsham at Aldershot while the Haywards Heath/Lewes team will compete at Salisbury.
Hastings will be missing the services of All-rounder Elise Lovell who has been selected to compete in the European 2015 Combined Events Cup at Aubaugne in France, while Crawley will miss their Surrey star Jo Rowland who is also in the team with Lovell.