Six Golds for Sussex at Southerns

Crawley javelin thrower Ivo Pitts smashed through the 60-metre mark, for the first time, to take the South of England, under-17 men’s javelin title in the regional age group championships. Pitts throw of 61.27m was a two-metre improvement on his previous best. This was undoubtedly one of the Sussex highlights in a weekend, that saw an increase in the numbers of the county’s athletes travelling to the event.

Battling strong winds at the Julie Rose stadium in Ashford, Pyers Lockwood (EBR) returned to his winning ways to take the under-17 400m hurdles title in 55.36s. Cleo Tomlinson (HBS) and Ruby Jerges (CRA) continued their long jump rivalry, with Cleo winning on this occasion, with a 5.54m leap to Ruby’s 5.45m.

Lewes’s under-15 English Schools' Championships pole vaulting one and two, could not be split. Therefore,  Emilie Oakden and Amelia Hatchard were joint gold medallists with vaults of 3.20m. Meanwhile, Will Sutton of Crawley won the under-15 boys high jump with a leap of 1.75m, just one centimetre below his best.

Brighton’s Amber Purcell, a first year under-15, came away with two silver medals. On the Saturday in the long jump a helpful wind pushed her out to a massive personal best of 5.21m. Purcell returned on the Sunday and, in only her second triple jump competition, leapt to 10.47m for another podium spot. Her club mate Massi Campbell also took silver in the under-17 men’s long jump with a six metre leap.

There was a silver lining for Crawley’s Poppy Oliver in the 300m hurdles in a time of 45.08s. In this same final Mia O’Hara (CRA) was fourth and Lucy Kirby (B&H) fifth. Under-15 James Pratt (CRA) took a silver medal in the javelin with 50.39m and a bronze in the pole vault with 3.20m. Ivy Spencer (LEW) continued Sussex’s fine tradition of success in the pole vault with a 3.10m leap for second in the under-17 women’s competition.

Alessio Anah (CRA) ran 14.03s for a bronze in the under-17 men’s 100m hurdles. His club mate, Noa Maoundus, secured a bronze also, in the under-15 girls 75m hurdles with a time of 11.97s. Will Snashall (CRA) jumped 3.90m for third in the under-17 men’s pole vault. In this same competition Dan Dearden was fifth with 3.80m and Cameron Wells sixth with 3.70m.

In the under-17 women’s shot put East Grinstead’s Rebekah Tyler, continued her fine form this season with a 12.64m personal best for the bronze medal. Tyler has improved by over two metres this year. Crawley’s Carys Leyshon also struck bronze in the under-13 girls shot put with 8.41m, as did Poppy Palmer-Malins (PHX) in the under 17 women’s 1500m in a time of 4:49.27s.

There were many other promising performances and top eight places* from Sussex athletes, including: 

4^th U17W Kelsey Sutherland B&H triple jump 11.05m

4^th U17W Peanut Meekings HBS javelin 36.71m

4^th U17M Tom Ridley B&H high jump 1.85m 

4^th U13B Vittorio Anah CRA 200m 25.34s

4^th U13G Kyla Ball HBS high jump 1.40m

4^th U15B Ben Connolly PHX 1500m 4:27.30  

5^th U13G Rosie Kornevall LEW 200m 28.3s

6^th U17W Chloe Kornevall LEW 400m 59.16s

6^th U17M Torin Seagrove B&H high jump 1.80m

6^th U13B Vittorio Anah CRA 100m 12.86s

6^th U13G Libby Russell B&H high jump 1.35m

6^th U15G Katie Ridley B&H long jump 4.88m

7^th U17G Hari Brogan HBS high jump 1.75m

7^th U15G Katie Ridley B&H 75mH 12.78s

7^th U15B Jabar Busari 80mH  12.01s

8^th U15B Ethan Curran CRA 300m  39.59s

8^th U15G Jemima Caldwell CRA discus 26.73m

*list excludes those already mentioned in the review.