A busy season and the move to a late August date impacted heavily on the Sussex Under 20 team for the annual inter-counties match at Hendon on Sunday, where unfortunately in many events there was no Sussex representation at all. Wind and rain also made it hard going for the athletes who had to contend with qualifying heats for all events up to and including 800m.
Despite this Pole vaulters George Turner (Brighton) and Livvy Connor (Lewes) took top honours with heights of 4.20m and 3.80m respectively. On the track Connor made it a double with a second win over the 100m hurdles, setting a PB of 14.90s. East Grinstead’s Abby Beswick ran well to come second in the final of the 200m, improving her heat time to 25.37s. 5.43m was enough for Beswick to secure another second place in the Long Jump. Meanwhile James King (Haslemere Border AC) was a fine third in the triple jump, leaping to 13.61m.
There was an excellent fifth place (out of 16) for the Sussex Under 15 team but no individual winners. Brighton’s Amber Anning came second in both the Long Jump (5.15m) and 200m (25.28s), as did Crawley’s Jamie Kealey in the 300m (38.1s). There was a third place for Kealey’s clubmate Natasha Purchas in the Pole Vault (2.80m) and for Nancy Tier (Brighton) in the shot with 11.17m. Worthing’s Ben Hawkes was fourth in the discus (39.32m), fifth in the hammer (40.43m) and the busy athlete also came sixth in the Shot Put (11.90m). There were fourth places for Bill Saunders (Lewes) in the Javelin (38.73m) and for Crawley’s Tom Pitts. His time of 11.95s in the 80mH was a good effort as he was running into a 2.9 headwind.
After a 12.74s heat Chichester’s Alyssa White came fifth in the 100m final in 12.85s as did as did James Lund (Worthing) in 11.84s. Hannah Brockbank (Brighton) finished fifth in the discus throw with 31.69m as well as seventh in the hammer throw with 36.11m.
Thank you to the team managers Paul Cunningham (U20) and Terry and Michelle Notman (U15).