Charlie Grice (Brighton Phoenix) was certainly in sprightly form at the Anniversary Games/Diamond League meeting at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Friday evening.
Grice wanted to sharpen up a little in preparation for Rio so decided to opt out of the “Emsley Carr Mile” and tackle the 800 metres.
He was not expected to get amongst the medals and he in fact finished in ninth place, albeit less than two seconds down on the winner, but he chopped more than one second off his previous personal best for the distance in 1:45.53s. This time took him above Chris Carter (Brighton & Hove) on the Sussex All Time lists and he now stands second to Steve Ovett, who was still with Brighton & Hove when he set the Sussex 800m record, on both the 800 and 1500m lists.
Grice’s time is also the second fastest by a British 800m runner this season.
Lee Emanuel from Hastings was the second British runner to finish in the “Emsley Carr” finishing seventh in 3:55.43s which is his fastest clocking for a couple of years.
On Saturday Seb Rodger finished sixth in a blistering field in the 400m hurdles and he was drawn just inside Kent’s Jack Green who he had beaten in the UK championships.
This time it was Green who got the better of the encounter clocking 48.99s for fifth place with Rodger in sixth place in 49.35s.
Without a steeplechase to test him Rob Mullett (Lewes) accepted an invitation to race against Mo Farah in the 5,000m his first ever outdoor 5,000m. He was not expecting to challenge the Olympic gold medallist and in fact was lapped by Farah as he steamed up the finishing straight.
Mullett did however record 14:25.90s, which would have topped the Sussex Rankings last season.
Horsham domiciled Jade Lally topped the sixty metre mark with a fine effort of 61.65m to take third place in a strong international field.
World Junior Championships:
Spencer Thomas (Phoenix) was in action in the heats of the World Junior championships on Friday night but was squeezed out of the semi-finals placing fifth in 1:52.54s.
Sussex Under 13 League:
There was a record breaking end to this season’s Sussex Under 13 League matches last week with Crawley finishing as League Champions of the West Division at Broadbridge Heath and Brighton & Hove the East Division winners at Eastbourne.
At Eastbourne Anouska Fairhurst (Lewes) set a League record of 36.33m for the javelin throw.
Also at Eastbourne Ruby Anning (Brighton & Hove), recovered from a fall at the beginning of the 75m race which saw her claw her way back into second place behind Delicia Pascall (Hastings) 10.4s to 10.7s to turn the tables in the 150m and set a new League record of 19.7s to Pascall’s 20.8s.
At Broadbridge Heath Ruby Jerges (Horsham) leapt 4.89m to set a new mark and she also won the 70m hurdles in 12.1s.
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