The British Championships at Birmingham this weekend is again being used as the Trials for the European championships in August but before then there is the team for the World Athletics Cup, in July, to be decided.
Sussex athletes are hoping to catch the selector’ s eyes and Charlie Da’Vall Grice will have been buoyed up by his recent fine 1500m victory over one of his main rivals Jake Wightman in Marseille last week.
Brighton Phoenix’s Grice came through a tough battle to clock 3:36.48s, well inside the standard with Wightman (Edinburgh) squeezed into third place in 3:37.04s and they will almost certainly clash with Edinburgh’s Chris O’Hare, who is recovering from injury, in Sunday’s Final.
Currently there are four British runners inside 3:36s in the National Rankings and Grice is second behind another Edinburgh athlete Josh Kerr with O’Hare third and Wightman fourth and a good battle is expected though placings are important and it may be another jog followed by a sprint finish.
Grice’s club mate Robbie Fitzgibbon is lying in sixth place on the rankings and could also make Sunday’s final.
In the 400m hurdles Seb Rodger from Eastbourne is lying third in the Ranking behind Kent’s Jack Green and Swansea’s Dai Greene and all three have achieved the standard this season.
Another who has a standard under her belt this season is Sussex domiciled but Surrey qualified discus thrower Jade Lally. Lally tops the British ranking this season with a best throw this year just shy of sixty metres.
There are several other Sussex athletes hoping to do well at Birmingham and gain places in the finals.
Sussex Under-13 Championships:
The Sussex Under-13 Track and Field and Quad Kids Championships are being held at Brighton’s Withdean Stadium on Saturday starting at 11.00am.
The Under 13 athletes are well served in Sussex by the East and West Division League matches throughout the season plus the Y.D.L League but nowhere near all the athletes who have shone in their League matches enter the County Championship so we get some interesting Champions.
The third round of the Upper Age group of the Y.D.L are also being held this weekend, on Sunday at various venues across the South of England with Crawley, in Division One A having the benefit of a home match.
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