With the arrival of lovely sunshine on the Sunday of the Sussex Track and Field Championships, came the tumbling of more Championship Best Performances.
The calm and warm conditions on the second day were a huge improvement on the previous afternoon’s rain at the K2 Leisure Centre, in Crawley.
On her home track Crawley AC's Natasha Purchas got the ball rolling in the U20s, breaking Livvy Connor’s two-year record in the Pole Vault with a soaring 3.75m. It is the second year in a row Purchas has broken a record after taking the title in the U17 age category in 2017.
There was a strong line up in the U15 boys 100m, despite Horsham Blue Star’s Seb Wallace pulling out of the whole weekend due to injury. The title was taken by Crawley’s Olutimilehin Esan, who ran a blistering 11.52 seconds breaking Worthing's Mark Fabes 41-year-old record of 11.6 secs.
Following on from her wins in the U15 girls 100m and 300m, Cleo Tomlinson took her second championship record of the weekend in the Long Jump with a leap of 5.40m breaking the record of 5.30m she had set last year.
Brighton & Hove's Anning sisters, Amber and Ruby, did a family '200m golden double', with Ruby comfortably winning the U15 race in 25.75s. Minutes later Amber broke Carley Wenham's 12-year-old mark to set a new U20 200m CBP of 24.08s.
Hurdler Jessica Lambert (Crawley) moved up to the Under 20 age group in fine style taking a record in the 400m hurdles. She broke the 14-year CBP with a time of 63.33s.
With six competitors, it was a straight final in the U17M 400m. Eastbourne’s Moyo Sargent was victorious and another long standing CBP fell. His time of 49.02sec broke the previous 49.97 set in 1998. In total it was a hat trick of golds for Sargent across the whole weekend as he also took the 100m and 200m titles. His clubmate Bailey Wright took gold in both the U20s 200m and 100m, breaking a CBP in the latter in a time of 10.72s.
The second field CBP fell in style on Day 2. Under 20, Daniel-James Thomas (EBR) launched a massive 15:52m in the U20M shot put. This was more than a metre further than the previous 14:51m set back in 1986.
There were other notable performances. Brighton & Hove’s Arthur Haines was just 2cm off a CBP in the U15 high jump taking gold with 1.77m. Luke Twigger (Brighton) took gold in the U15 javelin with an impressive 44.06m. Worthing’s Freya Brennand did the double winning the hammer (40.33) and the discus (22.17).
Crawley’s Poppy Oliver added to her 300m title from day one with golds in the U17W 200m 26.07s, the 300m hurdles (45.31s) and the 4x100m relay.
In the boys’ Minithon, Hasting’s Daniel Pascall was the winner with 64 points (3.97 Long Jump, 20.94 150m Shot 7.74m). Brighton athlete Alexander Riley took silver with 62 points, just two ahead of his clubmate Noah Mason.
With increased entries in more events, it is fair to say the 2018 Sussex Track and Field Champs was a huge success.
by Kate Matthews
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