There were gold medals for Charlie Grice and Ryan Driscoll and several minor medals for other Sussex athletes in the wind and rain swept English U20/23 Championships at Bedford over the weekend, which also doubled as the “Trials” for various Major Games.
Grice (Brighton Phoenix) is firmly established as one of the top British senior 1500 metre runners was in complete charge when he took the U23 800m title, well outside his best, in 1:50.04s.
Driscoll, from Crowborough, ran a studious U23 3,000m steeplechase. He was never out of touch and once he made his move in the final 200 metres he was never in danger of losing the title, which he won in 8:58.87s
There was another victory for Sussex, though not a championship event. This was an U18 400 hurdles trials race and Joe Fuggle from Wadhurst controlled the race from start to finish clocking 54.10s, which should certainly impress the selectors.
In the U23 high jump Isobel Brown (Chichester), recently back from America, had to share the silver medal with two other athletes but the windy conditions played havoc with the jumpers and they had to settle for 1.70m
Also taking the silver medal Tony Harries (Phoenix) who, like Fuggle, is still in the U17 age group, was squeezed into second place in the U20 200 metres in a windy 21.11s.
There were bronze medals for Livvy Connor (Lewes) who cleared a PB of 3.75m in the U20 pole vault and also finished ninth in the triple jump with 10.92m while Spencer Thomas (Phoenix) who took third place in a slow run, tactical U20 800m in 1:51.8s and James Lasis (Crawley) in the U23 discus throw with 48.25.
Matt Lasis (Crawley) just missed the medals in the U23 hammer throw reaching 60.05m for fourth place while Brighton & Hove’s Bethany Close again ducked inside 14 seconds for the U23 100m hurdles, finishing fourth in 13.92s, Louisa James from Hastings threw 54.55m for fourth in the U23 Hammer and Robbie Fitzgibbon (Phoenix) was fourth in the U23 1500m in 3:52.4s with Ian Crowe-Wright (Brighton & Hove), who had clocked a PB of 3:51.7s in his semi final placed sixth in 3:59.5s.
George Turner (Brighton & Hove) placed fifth in the U20 pole vault with a PB of 4.45m, while Brighton & Hove athletes Anne Short finished sixth in the U20 100m in 11.95s and Katie Garland also sixth in the U20 long jump with a windy 5.78m.