Natasha Purchas from Crawley gave the 2015 season a great send off when she broke the Crawley and Sussex U15 pole vault records at the end of season Jim Day Memorial Open Indoor pole vault competition at Carlshalton.
Twenty two Sussex vaulters made the trip to Carlshalton and 14 of these either achieved a personal or Indoor personal best and five won their competitions.
Pride of place certainly went to Purchas who has had remarkable season and she added 22cm to her previous best when winning the U15 competition by clearing 3.42m which is an improvement of 8cm on the 2012 County record of Livvy Connor (Lewes) and Jade Brewster (Horsham) while Freya Fitchett (Lewes) placed third with 2.72m.
Calum Neil (Horsham) won the U17 boys competition clearing 4.22m while Lewes’s Livvy Connor took the U20 title with 3.82m for an indoor PB, Gemma Tutton took the U11 event with 2.22m and Bill Saunders cleared 3.72m for the U15 title.
Chloe Billingham (Horsham) finished second in the U20 girls event clearing 3.32m and George Turner (Brighton & Hove) matched that placing in the U20 men’s event topping 4.32m, which was the highest Sussex clearance of the weekend. Scott Devlin (Crawley) was also over four metres, albeit by 2cm for third place.