Entrants for this weekend’s Sussex Track & Field championships at the K2 Leisure centre at Crawley are up for the sixth successive year.
For, what it is believed is the first time more than 1000 entries have been received from 640 athletes. However the increase is in the young athlete’s age groups as there is still a general trend amongst senior athletes to give the championships a miss.
The exception here is the 5000m event where most of the leading distance runners are entered and if all 26 entries line up on Saturday we should be in for an epic battle. Although we are missing the County cross-country champion Tom Evans (Lewes), who would consider this a short sprint, James Westlake (Crawley), the runner up, is entered and it will be interesting to see how these athletes transfer their cross-country skills to the track. Veteran Howard Bristow (Brighton & Hove) who won the title last year has been injured for most of this year and is probably not in the form to retain his crown.
Amber Anning (Brighton & Hove), who alongside Charlie DeVall Grice (Phoenix) was probably the outstanding Sussex athlete last year is down to race over both 100 and 200 metres and another outstanding athlete is thrower Ben Hawkes (Worthing) and both these compete in the Under 20 age group, possibly much to the relief of those seniors who will be there and competing.
One thing is certain it is the Young Athletes who will create most of the excitement and competition.
The events start at 11.00 each day with the women’s pole vault starting half-an-hour earlier on the Sunday.
If you have any queries or want more information regarding this post, please Email Reg Hook.