Hastings long jumper Elise Lovell took the first medal for Sussex on the first day of the British Universities Championships at Bedford when she picked up a bronze medal.
Competing in the long jump and jumping for Brighton University, Lovell leapt 5.62m while Brighton & Hove’s Katie Garland, jumping for Loughborough, finished in eighth place with a leap of 5.35m.
Crawley’s Sam Heawood (Brunel) repeated his fourth place of last year in the Shot putt putting 15.54m and another Crawley athlete (Brighton University), Holly Turner, finished second in her heat of the 400 metres to take her through to the second round in 56.92s.
Another through to the next round of his event is Brighton & Hove’s Ian Crowe-Wright (Birmingham) who in the 1500m was also second in his heat in 3:57.97.
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A trio of Crawley hurdlers have been in record breaking form already this season.
In Spain at Torremolinos Orla Brothers, who lost all last season through injury and is now in the U20 age group made a tremendous debut over 400m hurdles and set a new Sussex U20 record of 60.5s. Brothers chopped more than one second off Hastings’s Cara Pain’s 2004 mark of 61.9s and until last year this time would have equalled the 33 year old Sussex senior record so she stands at second on the Sussex All Time list.
In the U17 age group Katie Bristowe broke the Crawley Club’s record for the U17 80m hurdles with a highly impressive 11.84s at Gillingham, which is the fifth fastest in Britain this season.
Topping that in the Young Athletes League at K2 was Abigail Packham who topped the National Rankings in the 75m hurdles with a cracking 11.3sec.
Also in action at Gillingham was Brighton & Hove’s Amber Anning who is still in the U17 age but has to run up an age group as she is eligible for the Youth Commonwealth Games in July but they race over 400 metres instead of the U17 distance of 300m.
At Gillingham she was put into a mix sexed race and won the event by 11 seconds in a personal best of 55.98 which places her in the Top Ten Nationally in the U20 age group and takes her into eighth place on the Sussex All Time list.
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