Although a few Sussex athletes have managed two appearances at the Commonwealth Games Championships none has also won four English Schools titles and broken UK age records as they moved through the age groups; let alone held every Sussex record from U13 to Senior in their event.
An athlete who fulfils that criteria is Claire Smithson who joined the Brighton & Hove club as a sprinter because she enjoyed running. It was Brighton coach Frank Burton, who suggested Claire may be more suited to the throwing events and she became hooked on the discus.
Claire was born on the 3rd of August 1983 to George and Patricia Smithson and went to Blatchington Mill School in Hove, BHASVIC and St Mary’s College, Kingston.
She made a major impact as a discus thrower with the shot put very much as a secondary event and her first Sussex titles and records came in that age group in 1995 when she won both titles and set a Sussex U13 discus record of 30.84m, a distance she increased to 32.70m before the season was out and this still stands as the Sussex U13 record in 2021.
In 1996 she won both the Sussex County titles in the U15 age group and the U15 Sussex Schools discus title which led on to a place at the England Schools championship where she set another Sussex record when finishing second with 34.96m.
1997 added several U15 titles to her name a fine double, including CBPs, at County level with 11.42m and 35.76m and the Sussex Schools discus event with 34.86m followed by the English Schools Crown with 38.14m, some eight metres clear of the second-placed athlete and another double at the W.A.A.A Champs with 12.41m and 37.62m She first topped the forty-metre mark with 40.54mm at the South of England Championships at the Crystal Palace.
Early in 1998, Claire, who was just 14 years old became the youngest ever British athlete to represent the GB U20 team in an indoor international meeting at Birmingham where she placed sixth after winning the A.A.A U17 title. Claire placed third against France and Germany in the shot put with 11.42m behind second-place U20 champion Julie Dunkley.
After winning both County U17 titles with CBPs with 12.65m and 38.85m a disaster struck. Claire broke a finger in her right hand and that put paid to the Sussex Schools and the England Schools and weeks of training. She recovered in time to win the A.A.As Shot put with 12.73m but had to be satisfied with second place in the discus throw, behind Emma Carpenter's 41.30m, with 40.64m.
On to 1999 and the usual start to the championship season with another double in U17 age group at the County breaking a Sussex record in the shot put with 13.26m and another CBP with a throw of 45.90m in the discus and she collected a third title and another CBP in the hammer throw with 27.41m.
A CBP of 46.43m in the Sussex Schools sent her to Bury St Edmunds as one of the favourites for the English Schools Championships and after a good competition she reached 49.36m, which was a PB and a Sussex Record and I think remains a CBP at English Schools record. Older brother Craig also made the Sussex team this year and finished fourth in the SB shot putt with 14.14m.
She was a little disappointed with her 46.10m throw in the Euro U20 championships at Riga in Latvia for 11t place but was happier with her 48.8s at a U19 International match in Germany where she placed second and she also finished seventh in the shot put with 13.04m.
Claire chalked up a National Indoor U20 title early in 2000 with 13.09m. She scored another double at the Sussex championships with CBPs with 13.25m in the shot and 48.76m in the discus and followed this with 47.53m for the Sussex Schools U19 title and CBP.
47.51m earned her third English Schools title at Sheffield and in August she made a major break through at the reopening of the Withdean Stadium following the move of the “Albion” to the Amex. In an evening of star performances, Claire hit the high spot when she became the first-ever Sussex woman to top the “Fifty-metre” mark in the discus throw with a wonderful 51.38m and she was still only 17 years old. Suzanne Allday, who had been the queen of Sussex women’s throwing for fifty years was amongst the guests and was present to witness the throw and congratulate her on 
her new Sussex record.
Claire went on to win the AAA Junior title with 48.65m and later in the season she topped 50 fifty metres again when placing eighth in the World U20 championships at Santiago in Chile with 50.18m while at the end of the season in a U19 international match at Grossetto in Italy, against Spain and the home country she broke her Sussex record and the British U20 record with a throw of 52.19m.
2001 saw her usual double in the County championships with a CBP in the shot put with 13.54m and 47.74m in the discus throw. She repeated the medicine in the Southern championships with 14.68m, a Pb and Sussex U20 record and another Pb and Sussex record of 52.80m.
She threw 51.77m to win the Sussex Schools title and CBP and on to the English Schools where she won her fourth title with a CBP of 52.74m and finished eighth in the European Junior championships, just shy of 50 metres, and won a U19 match against France in Dole with 50.88m.
Her 54.81m throw at the AAA junior champs at Bedford saw her finish the season third on the British senior ranking list.
Although she had plenty of opportunity for competition she duly turned up for the 2002 Sussex championships and added two more U20 titles and CBPs to her name with 14.06m and 50.22m and onto the Southern Championships where she again came out on top with 14.04m and 51.21m respectively and only once, in the qualifying rounds for the World U20 championships in Jamaica, where she was a British Captain, did she drop below the fifty metres mark this year.
A busy year all round Claire threw 54.90m for second place in the Bedford International meeting, which was a UK U20 record, and then fourth place in the Commonwealth Games trials at Manchester in June behind three senior throwers, one of them Welsh.
Victory in the AAA U 20 championships with 53.91m and then back to Manchester to finish seventh in the Commonwealth Games with 55.03m, the second English thrower. In between, she had gone to Kingston Jamaica, for what she described as a disappointing ninth in the World Junior Championships with 50.85m but her Manchester throw earned her fourth place on the British Ranking lists.
There was another double in the Sussex Senior championships in 2003 with 13.76m to deprive Debbie Woolgar of her Senior shot title that she had held for 20 years and also took the discus title with 50.51m to beat Suzanne Allday’s 1967 CBP.
Other highlights for Claire were eighth place in the European U23 Championships in Bydgoszcz Poland with 51.97m and third place in the AAA senior championships with 52.59m.
A low key 2004 saw her retain her Sussex discus title with 43.98m and take second place to Debbie Woolgar in the shot with 11.51m and later in the season win the Southern Inter-Counties discus throw, ahead of the emerging Jade Lally who was shortly to move to Sussex and reach out to 13.03m for third place in the shot.
2005 saw a whole range of competitions including second to Debbie Woolgar in the County shot put with 11.51m and gold in the discus throw with 43.38m.
A second place in the CAU with 54.19m and another second place in the AAA senior event with 53.82m, first place in the AAA U23 champs 55.58m and another victory in the BUSA champs but this one was sub fifty metres. She had returned from Warm Weather training in South Africa but instead of returning home, she caught the next plane to Glasgow where she was a clear winner of the discus crown with 49.34m.
In the European U23 championships at Efurt, Germany, Claire took third place with 53.77m but her season’s best came in the Southern League at Hoo where she reached 55.93m which saw her in third place on the annual British Ranking lists.
There was another trip to the Commonwealth Games in 2006 when she travelled to Melbourne and finished eighth in the discus through with 54.34m in March, the first English thrower but two places behind Philippa Roles who was throwing for Wales.
An AAA gold medal came with a cracking 56.15m throw with the National Championships and Trials meeting at Manchester in July and later in the month she reached 56.73s in the UK Throws Fest at Birmingham which was her best ever throw and a Sussex record as well twelfth place on the UK All-time list. This throw also earned her second place in the UK Merit List behind Roles.
Following her Trials victory, she was invited to compete for the UK in the European championships but she had to decline as she had just started a new job.
Claire retired in 2007 as she was unable to balance the training she needed with work.
This however was not quite the end as she made a comeback to competition at the end of 2011 in Southern League matches and in 2012, although she had a full season she was unable to fit in enough training and although she was able to chalk up many victories, in Southern League matches she only had one throw over 48 metres. She still managed to make the top ten on the Ranking lists.
48.63m for fourth place in the British Athletics Throws fest was the best in 2013 and coupled with the serious illness of her father George she decided her continued lack of training she bid goodbye to the sport that had been her life for nearly twenty years.
At 38, in 2021, she could still make a considerable contribution to Sussex and Masters Athletics if she could manage to fit in enough training to keep fit as the techniques will still be there.
Claire’s best throws were 56.73m in 2006 at Birmingham which places her 16th on the British All-Time List and is the Sussex Record and 14.01m in 2001 for the shot.
Her 53.93m in 2005 sees her in sixth place for the All-Time U23 List, she is second in the U20 list with 55.03m, fourth in the U17 with 29.36 and at U15 she is eighth with 40.54m.
Throughout her throwing career she has been coached by Mike Winch who was featured back in November.
In November 2019 Claire married Chris at the Buxted Park Hotel and is now known as Claire Black she works as Senior Customer Service Consultant at the Legal and General Group.