There were two silver and two bronze medals for Sussex athletes at the B.U.C.S championships at Bedford over the weekend but no golds this year.
In his first year at Loughborough James Lasis (Crawley) heaved the discus out to a personal best of 48.50m, which lifts him to seventh place on the Sussex All time lists to take second place. Bethany Close (Brighton & Hove), who is at Swansea, matched this placing with two sparkling runs behind Marilyn Wawulor (Middx Uni). Close also notched a PB of 14.07s, the fourth fastest Sussex time ever, in the final having recorded a windy 13.91s in her semi-final.
Hastings hammer thrower Louisa James (Brighton Uni) took a bronze medal in the hammer throw with 57.27m while Simon Heaward (Worthing/Brunel) also took third place in the shot putt with 13.67.
Ryan Driscoll (Crowborough/St Mary’s) was squeezed into fourth place despite a fine run in the 3000m steeplechase where he clocked his fastest ever time of 9:00.99s
There was also a fourth place for Crawley’s Surrey athlete Jo Rowland (Brunel) in the long jump with 5.72m and she also finished fifth in the shot putt with 13.05m and seventh in the javelin throw with 38.54 where Brighton & Hove’s Grace Hailstone (Un of Wales) threw 35.14m to finish twelfth after throwing 38.38m in qualifying and another fourth place for Grace Jenkins from Newham, who attends Brighton University who threw the discus 42.28m.
Matt Lasis (Crawley/Cardiff) was unable to match younger brother James’ second place in the discus throw but he was over sixty metres placing sixth in 60.74m in the hammer throw while Olllie Smith (Chichester/Brunel) was also sixth in the 400 metres in 48.63s and Holly Turner (Crawley/Brighton Uni) reached the final of the 200 metres clocking 25.61s for seventh place.