A record breaking day at the Sussex Schools Track and Field Championship at the K2 Leisure Centre at Crawley saw ten Championships best performances broken.
Conditions, although rather humid, were pretty good and Crawley managed to escape the heavy showers that swept across the South Downs during the day.
Many of the records that fell were comparatively short lived and related to the recent introduction of new events or changes in the specification of implements and most of the established marks are by athletes who went on to become International performers.
There were however three cracking performances where records had stood for more than a decade and of these probably pride of place went to the remarkable sprinting of Amber Anning (Brighton & Hove Schools) who twice bettered Carley Wenham’s (Crawley) 12.2s clocking for the Intermediate (U17) 100 metres of 2003. Anning the reigning English School’s Junior 200m champion clocked 12.12s when easing up in her heat but was timed at a fine 12.09s when winning the final, a time that puts her at number eight on the Sussex senior “All-time Top Ten” list and is currently seventh in the UK ranking for her age. Not a bad effort for an athlete whose main event is the 300 metres.
The oldest CBP to fall on Saturday went to Lauren Lethbridge (Crawley) in the Junior (U15) long jump when she removed Lucy Ramsay’s (Brighton & Hove) 2001 mark of 5.25m.
Lethbridge has been having an excellent season and she challenged the CBP with a leap of 5.24m in the second round and then leapt a splendid 5.39m in the third round. A couple of no jumps as she was pressing for an even better mark and then a final 5.13m, all efforts bettering the School’s qualifying standard. Her effort was not only a personal best but puts her in the Top Ten Nationally. The third CBP removing a decade old mark fell to Edan Cole (Brighton & Hove) who erased Joe Waller’s (Mid Sussex) 2004 mark of 58.37m in the Intermediate javelin throw. Cole had already collected a CBP at the Sussex County championships last month but although he was unable to repeat his sixty plus throw then he still managed 59.22m to add nearly one metre to the previous CBP.
The Girls got the better of the record breaking with just two of the ten marks being recorded by Boys.
The other record breaking boy was Moyo Daramola (South Downs) who clocked 37.79s for a new PB to beat Joe Fuggle’s (Ouse Valley) 38.1s mark of 2013 and Fuggle is now in line for a place in the British team for the European Junior Championships in July.
First record breaker of the day was Naomi Owolabi (Brighton & Hove) who added nearly two metres to the mark she set last year in the junior shot putt with a fine effort and a PB of 11.65m.
Katie Bristowe (Crawley) chopped nearly half a second off Amy Fitzgerald’s (Mid Sussex) 11.7s time for the 75m junior hurdles with a National Standard clocking and PB of 11.27s. Bristowe's time is also a county record and takes her to fourth in the UK rankings. She also pulled her Crawley club mate Abigail Packham (Mid Sussex) inside the old CBP with 11.44s.
After Saturday we now have the odd situation in the girls pole vault where the Intermediate CBP is higher than the senior.
Women’s pole vaulting in Sussex is of a pretty high standard so although the records were not long standing they were good quality records. Natasha Purchas (Mid Sussex) set a PB as well as replacing Jade Brewster’s (Mid Sussex) three year old mark of 3.50m by clearing 3.60m while in the senior event Livvy Connor (Brighton & Hove) and Chloe Billingham (Mid Sussex) both cleared 3.50m to remove another Brewster mark but Connor took the title on count back.
Ruby Whyte Wilding (Brighton & Hove) chopped half a minute off Rachel Titheradge’s (Brighton & Hove) four year old 1500m steeplechase mark clocking 5:23.46s while Jordanna Jordan (Mid Sussex) improved the year old mark of 34.77m by Catriona Jamieson (Ouse Valley) with a fine effort of 35.90m.
Frances Osman-Allu and Ornelia Orfenov (Ouse Valley) established a new mark in the Junior pole-vault clearing 2.30 while another new event this year was the Intermediate 1500 steeplechase where Ella Honey (Brighton & Hove) set a mark of 6:32.07s.
Spare a thought for the many fine performances set during the day that did not set records, but there are just too many to mention.
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