There was a steady start for both Crawley and Brighton & Hove in the first round of the British Athletics League on Saturday.
Crawley finished fifth of eight teams in the Division two match at Kingsmeadow while Brighton & Hove placed third of six teams in their home Division four match which had to be switched from Withdean to Crawley because of work on the Stand at Withdean.
It was a very close match at Kingsmeadow where just 106 points covered all eight of the competing teams with the home team, Kingston & Poly eventually emerging victorious with 309 points to Herne Hill’s 299 and Kent’s 292, Bournemouth’s 285 with Crawley scoring 277 in fifth place and Bristol & West scoring 260 points.
Winning performances were hard to come by and indeed Crawley’s only winner was Leigh Walker who cleared 4.20, in particularly windy conditions, to take the “B” pole vault after George Turner had cleared the same height for fourth place in the “A” event.
Jason Hussain, at 38 years old and now into the twilight of his sprinting career, managed to squeeze into second place in the 200 metres in 22.17s after being squeezed in fourth place in the “B” 100 metres in a still useful 11.03s.
At Crawley Trafford won the match with 378 points to Nene Valley’s 376, Portsmouth’s 345 and the Brighton & Hove team’s 298 for fourth place with Reading and Doncaster on 276 and 193 points.
Brighton athletes managed to notch up three victories with Gwilym Cooper scoring an impressive flat 400 metre victory in 48.50s holding on to beat Portsmouth’s Harry Pocock after his back gave out in the closing stages when he looked like heading for a sub 48 second run..
Brighton runners dominated the 3,000m with Stephen Ferroni striding to a clear cut victory in 8:44.20s and James Turner taking the “B” race in 8:57.20s when finishing fourth overall.
Early next month Crawley will travel to Bristol for their second match while Brighton & Hove have to venture north to Trafford for their match.
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