Millie Noyce from Crawley looks set to become one of the stars of this coming summer’s track season following her splendid victory in the U15 shot putt at the English Indoor Athletics championships at Sheffield.
Noyce highlighted a successful weekend for Sussex athletes which included a trio of Brighton & Hove medallists.
Noyce caught the eye towards the end of last year’s track and field competitions with 11.49m which earnt her second place in the 2016 U15 County rankings. Following several fine efforts in indoor competitions this winter she pulled out a wonderful 12.47m which is further than the Sussex U15 record and will establish a new County record when she repeats this effort outdoors this coming summer.
There was nearly a second title for Sussex in the U17 200m where Brighton & Hove’s Amber Anning stepped down from her more usual 300m where she is the National champion.
Anning dominated her event winning her heat in an indoor personal best time of 24.86s and she repeated this victory in the semi-final with another PB of 24.47s which when repeated outdoors will become the fourth fastest 200 metre run by any Sussex woman.
Come the final she was looking set for victory when she pulled a hamstring and bravely limped over the finishing line in 25.09s in second place. The race was won by Enfield’s Alicia Regis in 24.72s which meant that Anning’s semi-final time of 24.47s was the fastest of the competition.
Clubmate Cameron Fillery, in the U20 60m hurdles, like Anning, was the fastest qualifier in 7.91s and in a nail-biting final he was squeezed into third place in 7.87s with the first three finishers all moving into the Top 15 of the British Indoor best performance list.
The third Brighton & Hove medal came in the U17 1,500m where Tom Eames, who also won the Sussex Cross-country League title earlier this month, took the bronze medal in 4:05.44s.
There were fourth places for pole vaulters Natasha Purchas (Crawley) who cleared 3.50m in the U17 competition and Lewes’s Gemma Turton in the U15 event where she cleared 2.81m.
Another pole vaulter, Crawley’s George Turner placed fifth in the U20 event clearing 4.20m and there was also another fifth place for Jack Harris (Lewes) in the U15 vault with 3.80m.
Pyers Lockwood (Eastbourne) was also fifth in the U15 300m in 39.72s having clocked 38.78s in his heat while in the U17 800 Maia Hardman (Brighton Phoenix) clocked 2:17.71s for fifth place and club mate Josh Eeles placed sixth in the U20 1500m in 3:57.37s.
Crawley’s Lillie Franks chose the wrong day to have a day off and she was below her best in the U20 high jump but still managed to finish sixth clearing 1.69 while fellow Crawley athlete Tamsin Campbell placed seventh in the U20 pole vault clearing 3.45m.
Brighton Half-marathon
Veteran Neil Boniface from Horsham Joggers was the leading Sussex runner to finish in the Brighton Half-marathon on Sunday.
In a race that was won by Jonathan Ripper from Kent in 68:37 from Tipton’s Stuart Hawkes who clocked 68:43 and who are both M35 age group athletes Boniface was the first M40 to finish placing third in 68:55.
Paul Navesey from Crawley finished sixth in 69:19 while James Baker (Chichester), who is also in the M40 age group placed ninth in 71:36.
Eleanor Davis from Newquay was the first woman to complete the course in 74:27 with Arena 80’s Emily Proto taking second spot in 81:27 and Elspeth Turner (Horsham) W50 taking fourth place in 83:06.
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