No medals for Sussex athletes on the second day of the British Athletic Championships and Olympic Trials at Manchester but a Sussex Record came tumbling for the youngest Sussex athlete on show, Gemma Tutton from Lewes.
Without doubt, the best club performance of the day came from Crawley Club member Niclas Baker, who is actually a Middlesex athlete and was runner up in the British championships last year. Baker won his heat on Friday evening in 46.81s and earnt himself a good middle lane but he had to come from behind, down the final straight, to burst through and take the title in a personal best time of 46.05s.
Gemma, who is still in the U17 age group, added a further 10cm to her personal best in the pole vault record, clearing 4.10m for fifth place, a European U20 Championships qualifying standard. Gemma broke the Sussex senior record that was set in 2000 at 4.04m by Lucy Webber, and she is the only other Sussex athlete to clear 4.00m.
The highest placed Sussex runner Archie Davis from the Brighton Phoenix Club who along with club members Charlie Da' Vall Grice and George Mills who was the reigning champion had made the large 15 man field.
Davis took the early pace but not fast enough to stretch the field out. Oh how we long for the former Brighton & Hove athlete Ray Roseman, the first Sussex four-minute miler. Roseman had helped many top British athletes to break four minutes for the one mile in the sixties. He was always in a hurry, pushed the pace along and in championship races still spread the fields as he set the pace, whether asked for or not.
On Saturday, the field did not really start to split up and by that time there was no chance of gaining an Olympic Qualifying standard although five of the finalists, including Grice, had beaten the standard this season. Davis and Grice were all in melee but the final straight saw the gaps spread and a last-minute sprint by Davis saw him squeeze past his clubmate to take well deserved fourth place in 3:42.86s with Grice fifth in 3:42.93s and Mills placing seventh in 3:44.52s.
There was another fourth place in the 110m hurdles when Saltdean’s Cameron Fillery won his heat in 13.46s and finished fourth in the final in 13.62s.
Crawley’s Kimbely Baptiste had a fine weekend to reach the final of the 100m and although she finished eighth in 11.62s having twice chased home Diana Asher-Smith in the heats and semi-final with 11.86 and 11.58s.
On Friday Brighton & Hove’s Amber Anning comfortably qualified for the final of the 400m. At 20 years old, she was the youngest athlete to make the final. Anning has only been back in the UK for a few days and on Saturday looking fatigued she struggled to keep up with the field and finished eighth in 53.02s.
Kimbely Baptise will be racing in the 200m today while National U23 champion Ben Hawkes (Worthing) will be throwing the hammer and National U20 champion Liz Korczak is in the javelin competition.