Crawley AC triumphed to win both the girls’ and boys’ Sportshall League team titles at Horsham on Sunday, in the 35th year of the competition.
The Crawley girls’ victory was emphatic. They won each of the four league matches gaining a maximum 20 points from Horsham with 15, Brighton -13, Haywards Heath - 7 and Chichester with 5. In the boys' league Brighton and Hove were the match victors for the second time in a row, however their third places in the first two league matches behind Crawley and Horsham left them two points astray overall. Final scores were Crawley – 18, Brighton - 16, Horsham -14, Haywards Heath - 8 and Chichester with 3 points.
There were three county records set on the day. Brighton’s Roxy Jones scored 85 to win the under 13 girls speed bounce. Crawley’s Alicia Borrill equalled Brighton's Amber Anning's under 13 Vertical Jump record of 67cms and Anning broke her own under 15 two-lap sprint record with a time of 21.6 seconds.
A special guest, who competed in the very early days of Sportshall and still holds a county record, was invited to present the winners plaques. Lynne Crockett (née Draper) was a UK Sportshall champion and jumped 2.60m in the Standing Long Jump as an under 15. Lynne went on to represent England over 100m and now helps at Horsham. She was delighted to be back but declined the invitation to relive her glory days.
Horsham Blue Star’s John Linfield started the Sportshall League in 1981 with two demonstration meetings. On behalf of Sussex Athletics, Amber Anning publicly thanked John, the team of officials and the team managers for enabling and supporting Sportshall to happen. Amber, who holds an unprecedented 10 County Sportshall records across the age groups, called up other Year 10 students who were competing in their last ever league match. Amongst the group were schools' and county champions, regional and national medallists. She asked the 9 and 10 year olds present to keep doing Sportshall until they were as, “old as us.”
The leading Sportshall athletes will now be selected to represent the county at the Under 11 "Fun in Athletics" festival on Sunday 28th February and at the under 13 and under 15 regional competition on Sunday 6th March. Both of these are facilitated by Sussex AA and take place at the Triangle in Burgess Hill.
by Melanie Anning