A group of Sussex Hurdlers invaded the continent at the weekend to compete in the International meeting at Flanders in Belgium and although there were no winners there were a couple of personal bests.
Star of the group was certainly Seb Rodger from Eastbourne who faced tough opposition in the 400m hurdles.
It was a good test for Rodger as it was against the opposition he will need to beat if he is going to get a ticket to Rio. In a great battle he finished third behind fellow Brits Rhys Williams from Cardiff and Tom Burton from Tamworth and these both cracked 50.0sec with 49.22s and 49.81s while Rodger clocked 50.42s, which would have been a season’s best had he not clocked 50.23s three days earlier at another meeting in Belgium.
Clocking a PB in the 400m hurdles was Brighton & Hove seventeen year old Jamie Lambert.
Lambert finished third in his race in 59.50s which was a splendid effort particularly considering it was over the senior hurdles.
Club mate Cameron Fillery also clocked a PB in the U20 high hurdles when he placed second in 14.37s behind the talented French hurdler Dylan Caty, who had finished fourth in last year’s junior championships.
Another Brighton & Hove athlete Matt Hewitt finished second in his senior 110m hurdles in 14.90s and Gwilym Cooper placed sixth in his 400m hurdles event in 53.98s.
BMC at Watford
A group of Brighton Phoenix athletes contested at the BMC Grand Prix at Watford and like the Brighton & Hove hurdlers trip to Flanders there were some PBs but no winners.
Spencer Thomas squeezed his PB in the “A” 800m by a few hundredths of a second when finishing a close third in 1:48.52s with Archie Davis taking eighth place in 1:51.26s.
In his race over 800m Finley Bigg ducked inside 1:50 for the first time by finishing fourth in 1:49.99s while Dan Stepney clocked 1:50.70s when also placing fourth in his race.
Over 1500m Daniel Eeles improved his PB when racing into 12th place in 3:50.84s while Sophie Mansfield produced a season’s best when finishing second in her 800m race in 2:12.27s.