Sussex recorded a fine result in the South East Inter-county match at Basingstoke on Sunday when they finished fourth, overall, behind Middlesex who scored 698 points, Essex 695, Kent 668
with 601 points. The were well ahead of the mighty Hampshire and Surrey teams.
There were several winning performances with a sparkling County record equalling long jump from Elise Lovell who matched Leanne Buxton’s 2007 record of 6.96m. Lovell also finished second in the 100m hurdles in 14.55s.
Ollie Smith, following his sparkling sprint double for Chichester at Portsmouth the day before with a fine victory in the 400 metres in 47.95s while also over one lap, but with hurdles, Gwilym Cooper was a convincing winner in 52.84s and George Grainger took the “B” race in 56.15s.
Kim Baptiste continued her fine 200 metres form of late winning her event in 24.63s and Louisa James took the hammer throw with 58.90m while the women’s sprint relay team turned up trumps in 48.62s and the men took the 4 x 400m relay title in 3:22.59s.
Southern Athletics League
Both Crawley and Brighton & Hove Clubs took full advantage of their home fixtures in the Southern Athletics League on Saturday to clock up impressive team victories.
In their Division One match at K2 the Crawley team had a close match with just thirteen points separating the first three teams but with 196 points they got the better of Dartford, 187 points, and Nene Valley 183 points while Tonbridge were tailed off in fourth team spot.
There was a fine sprint double from Craig Cox who clocked 11.3s and 22.87s while Sam Heawood took the shot put with 14.33m and George Grainger the 400m hurdles in 55.41s. and placed second in the 110m hurdles in 15.3s.
At Withdean in Division Two West there was a marginly more convincing victory for the home club who scored 220 points, their highest of the season, ahead of Newbury’s 208 points. Ealing and Hillingdon were trailed away with 132 and 124 points.
Under 20 decathlete Matt Smith had a busy afternoon winning four of his five events including the “B” pole vault with 3.00m after David Ingram had taken the “A” event with 3.90m, the long jump with a modest for him 6.08m and discus throw with 34.08m and the “B” javelin throw with 38.78m.
Becky Owen won the 100m hurdles in 15.67s the shot putt with 10.90m and the “B” high jump clearing 1.55m after Katy Garland had won the “A” jump at 1.60m and the javelin with 29.64m.
A cracking sprint double from Ollie Smith with 10.8s and 21.9s highlighted the Chichester Club’s second team spot behind Aldershot at Portsmouth in Division Three SW.
In Division Three SE at Lewes, the match was switched to a Sunday fixture and this allowed several athletes who had competed at Gateshead to compete and some did remarkably was as they may not have arrived home from the England Schools championships until as late as 3.00 on Sunday morning.
The Combined Lewes/Haywards Heath team did win the match scoring 264.5 points to Hercules/Wimbledon’s 264.5.
Livvy Connor, who had won the Senior Pole Vault at Gateshead, with 3.80m matched that height for another victory at Lewes while Abby Beswick who had finished fifth at Gateshead in the long jump actually improved her distance with a fine leap of 5.60m as well as recording a fine sprint double clocking 12.9 and 26.8s.
In the same Division at Twickenham Hastings were squeezed into fourth team spot.
In Division Three SW Worthing, at home, were third and Horsham were second at Bournemouth.
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