Two Golds, Three Silvers and one bronze made this a splendid weekend for Sussex athletes at the England Young Athletes Indoor Championships at Sheffield.
Toby Harries (Brighton Phoenix) who took the silver medal in his first year in the U17 age group at the English Schools 200m championship last year, was in a class of his own at Sheffield.
Having pocketed a bronze medal in the U17 60m dash in 6.93s. Harries romped to victory in his heat of the 200 metres ducking inside 22.00s he eased to victory in the semi-final and then destroyed the field in the final clocking 21.46s, faster than anything he has clocked outdoors and thought to be the fastest ever indoor time by a British U17 athlete.
The second gold fell to club mate Spencer Thomas in the 800 metres who had a good battle with Max Wharton (Halifax) but with a well-timed finish took the title in 1:52.24s to Wharton’s 1:52.35s.
In the U15 girls 200m Amber Anning (Brighton & Hove) set the fastest time by a British U15 this year when winning her heat in 25.18s but was squeezed into second place in the final by Joy Ogunleye (Colchester) who clocked 25.12s to the Brighton & Hove girl’s 25.27s.
In the U15 800m Archie Davis (Phoenix) eased his way into the final taking second place in his heat but was blown away by the Scots runner Ben Greenwood from Perth who took the final in 1:51.62s, faster than the winner of the U20 title, with Davis having to settle for a, never the less, excellent silver medal in 1:55.82s and he was in turn eight metres clear of the bronze medallist.
Meanwhile in the field George Turner (Brighton & Hove) came seventh in the U20 pole vault with a height of 4.30m.
Missing from our Saturday’s report was Horsham Blue Star’s Calum Neil who cleared a pb of 3.90m to take the bronze medal in the U17 pole vault while Bill Saunders (Lewes) had a brilliant day to take a silver medal in the U15 Vault clearing a pb of 3.50m.