Sussex youngsters won a handful of medals at the English Age Groups Indoor Championships at Sheffield on the same weekend as the Sussex Indoor championships.
Neither championships were back to the level of support seen two years back before Covid but there were fine Gold medals brought home to Sussex in the U20 Women’s pole vault and the U17 men’s 800 metres from Sheffield and a county Long Jump record.
Pole vaulter Gemma Tutton from Lewes continues to dominate nationally in whatever age group in which she is competing, and there was no exception at Sheffield. Tutton cleared 3.90m to add the Under 20 Crown to the U17 and U15 titles she has already won.
In the U17 800m, Brighton Phoenix’s Miles Waterworth won a wonderful battle in 1:56.8s which, until his BMC clocking of 1:55.58 three days later, was the fastest time by a British U17 athlete so far this year. In this same championship race, Brighton & Hove’s Alex Riley set a personal best and won the bronze medal in 1:57.26s, which is the sixth-fastest British time in this age group this year.
Ruby Jerges (Crawley) won the silver medal in the U20 women’s long jump and her distance of 6.09m, was a 19 centimetre PB and is the furthest any Sussex woman has ever jumped.
The U20 men's high jump saw Sussex athletes taking both silver and bronze medals. Crawley's Will Sutton cleared 1.98m to fill second place while Hari Brogan from Brighton and Hove clearing 1.94m for third place.
There was another bronze medal for Sussex when Lewes’s Yuna Hadlow cleared 2.70m in the U15 pole vault event. Fellow Lewes athlete Rowan Pearson placed fifth in the U17 400m in 52.13s after clocking 51.93s in his heat.
Just missing out on a medal was Brighton & Hove’s Amber Purcell in the U17 triple jump, with a fine leap of 11.27m.
In the U20 men’s triple jump club mate Massi Campbell, placed sixth with a leap of 14.00m while Stella Kalman, another Brighton & Hove athlete placed eighth in the U15 girl’s long jump with 4.79m.
USA
A trio of Sussex athletes has been chalking up fine results on the America University circuit with Brighton & Hove's Amber Anning (U23) opening the season with 52.07s over 400m, which is also the second-fastest time by a British athlete this year. Amber also clocked a personal best of 23.27s indoors which is the fastest clocking by a British athlete this season and just 3/100ths off the Sussex record held by Kimbely Baptiste.
Amber’s fellow clubmate, athlete Harry Reinecker-Found (U23), chalked up a personal best leap indoors in the high jump by clearing 2.05m. This effort lifts him to equal seventh place on the Sussex All-time lists.
Crawley’s Jessica Lambert (U23) has also been in action indoors recording a 400m PB of 57.20s.