“The races were so exciting, we were on a high,” said team manager Kim Milnthorpe, after the under 13/15 Regional Sportshall Final at Burgess Hill. The annual competition brought together the best young athletes from the south east to compete for county honours, in the strongest sportshall region in the UK.
There were many individual successes for the Sussex athletes who had been selected to represent the county following their performances in the two winter leagues. For the under 13 boys Daniel Tewogbade (CRA) dominated the 2-lap race to win gold by almost half a second. Stan Smith (WDH) took the bronze medal in this race after stepping in at the last minute to compete after another runner pulled out. Stan went on to secure a gold medal in the standing long jump with a leap of 2.49m. Ethan Lambert (HHH) was one of five boys who shared third place in the speed bounce.
Both Seb Wallace and Matt O’Dwyer (HBS) were in the 4-lap final and in a tight finish Seb was just beaten to the line and took silver before bagging a gold medal in the standing triple jump with a giant leap of 7.69m, which broke his own county record. Daniel, Matt, Seb and Stan then combined in the 4x2 relay, which went down to the wire, as they beat Berkshire to gold by 0.1s.
For the u13 girls Cleo Tomlinson and Ruby Jerges (HBS) were finalists in the 4-lap race with Cleo taking silver, before leaping to 7.12m for gold in the standing triple jump. In the 6-lap race some stylish running from the Crawley duo of Katie Coles and Erin Bracknell saw them take gold and silver respectively. They then teamed up in the 8-lap Parlauf and in a close fought battle with Berkshire came second. There was another excellent relay medal for Cleo and Ruby J along with their clubmate Ruby Walker and Brighton’s Ruby Anning as they moved from fourth into second on the last leg of the 4x2 lap race.
The under 15 athletes took part in an all-rounder competition, in which they had to compete in a jump, a throw or speed bounce and a run. Crawley’s Alicia Borrill leapt 63cms for a silver medal in the vertical jump and her clubmate Poppy Oliver replicated that position in the standing long jump (2.41m). The ever busy Poppy was also 3rd in the 4-lap race before teaming up with Adeline Preston (CRA) in the 8-lap parlauf. In this hard fought race the pair won bronze. Adeline went one better in the 4-lap with a well deserved silver medal. Meanwhile Ella Hannyngton and Colette Tierney (HBS), Hannah Williams (B&H) and Alicia secured another bronze medal for Sussex in the 4x2 lap relay.
Brighton’s Max Brazier had not lost a 4-lap race in the league fixtures this season and he continued his winning ways in the u15 boys’ competition. Max obliterated the opposition with a winning time nearly a second ahead of the silver medallist. Later on he joined up with Worthing’s Tom Ridley and the two of them put on a masterclass in the 8-lap parlauf cruising to victory. Adam Dray (HHH), a first year u15, won bronze in the speed bounce with 89.
In one of the best results for Sussex Sportshall in recent years the u13 and u15 girls and the u15 boys were overall bronze team medallists and the u13 boys’ team came fourth.
U13G results http://bit.ly/2mbjAvK
U13B results http://bit.ly/2mblBHX
U15G results http://bit.ly/2mHCN9A
U15B results http://bit.ly/2lLCBBj
Kim Milnthorpe & Melanie Anning
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