The weather gods were definitely on the side of our sport on Sunday, as the county’s youngest athletes converged on Brighton’s Withdean Stadium for the Under 13 Track and Field and Under 11 QuadKids Championships.
Last month UK number one Anouska Fairhurst (LEW) broke a longstanding county javelin record, so the Championship Best Performance (CBP) was always at risk and Fairhurst delivered with a mighty throw of 37.13m. This was her second title of the day, having won the discus earlier with a fine 26.58m.
UK number two long jumper Cleo Tomlinson (HBS) added three centimetres to the old CBP with a mark of 4.74m. This too was her second gold as in the morning she had romped away with the 70m Hurdles title in 12.04s. Tomlinson also struck silver in the High Jump – the gold medal going to Hannah Plumb (EGR), who added two centimetres to her personal best (PB) and equalled the 1.49m CBP.
Seb Wallace (HBS) was just one year old when the CBP for Long Jump was set in 2005. The talented sprinter/ jumper added 30cms to his PB and flew out to 4.96m to grab the record and title from High Jump winner Arthur Haines (B&H) who jumped 4.78m Wallace also won the 75m Hurdles in 12.80s and medalled in the 150m.
The final CBP fell in the last race of the day when the Crawley boys’ 4xl00 relay team consisting of; Jack Smart Williams, Luca Bryant, Thomas Kimber and Daniel Tewogbade ran 54.3 seconds to smash the previous record.
There were many other notable performances. In the sprints two athletes dominated the boys and girls races. Daniel Tewogbade won the 75m in 9.79s and the 150m in 19.87s. Meanwhile Brighton’s Ruby Anning was equally commanding in the girls’ events, winning the shorter sprint in 10.27s and the 150m in 20.26s. Anning also took silver in the relay and was second in the discus with a PB of 21.38m.
Staying on the field Luke Twigger (B&H) launched the javelin almost three metres further than ever before to win the gold medal with 37.11m
On the track Aaron Duncan (LEW) and Erin Bracknell (CRA) both ran away with the 800m titles with times of 2:25.9 and 2:27.6 respectively. In the 1200m Crawley’s Dylan Hanslow and Lukas Nerurkar (PHX) battled for 90% of the race until Hanslow sprinted away in the last 50 metres to take the title with 3:49.62 to 3:50.13. Brighton club mates Tatum Walker and Rebecca Losh also swapped the lead throughout their 1200m race until Walker too eventually edged it with 150m to go.
The annual U13 Inter-counties competition takes place on Sunday 31st July. Sussex’s leading young athletes will be receiving their invitations to represent the county at the beginning of next week.
QuadKids Under 11 Championships
The Sussex Under 13 stars of the future often have their first taste of competition at the Under 11 QuadKids Championships. This year the separate boys and girls competitions involved 80+ young athletes.
For the girls Worthing’s Amelie Gigg and Brighton’s Amber Purcell were very closely matched across three of the four events but Amelie’s superior vortex throw gave her valuable points which ensured her the gold medal with a final tally of 225 to Amber’s 217. A special mention to the Wormley twins Lauren and Charlotte (CRA) who ran the 600m in 1:52 minutes and 1:53 minutes respectively, both excellent times for U11’s.
In the boys competition unattached Henry Benson scored highly across all four events and won the gold from Miles Waterworth (B&H). Waterworth ran one of the fastest 600m’s of the day in 1:51.0 s.
3000m Championships
The 3000m Championships for U15 Boys and U17 Men saw Joe Smith (CRA) take the title in 9.27.38 some 20 seconds ahead of the second placer. Smith’s run takes him into the top five of the UK rankings.
Bodyworks Travis Hutchinson won the Under 17 gong in 10:39.34.
Wheelchair Open
This year there were two races over 100m and 800m. Five athletes from Worthing competed in both events. Lizzie Williams streaked away to win over both distances in times of 21.24s and 2:39.7 over 800m.
Melanie Anning
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