Bathed in glorious sunshine, the county's youngest athletes travelled across the South East for the opening round of this season’s Youth Development League (U13/U15). In the near perfect weather conditions both Brighton & Hove AC and Horsham Blue Stars were in winning form.
With a local match hosted by Lewes AC, Brighton led from start to finish and ended 135 points clear of second placed Medway & Maidstone, scoring 595 points to 459.5. Lewes came fourth with 426.5.
At K2, Horsham battled with Guildford & Godalming in the ‘West 1’ fixture, but finally eased away to take the win with 541 points to 529.5. Chichester Runners were fifth with 415.
There was another closely fought fixture in the ‘Premier 2’ division at Eton, where Crawley were just five points behind third placers Croydon Harriers with a total of 463.5 and only 25 behind the joint winners Herne Hill Harriers and Portsmouth AC.
East Grinstead and Hastings travelled to Ashford for their ‘East 2’ match. Woodford Green with Essex Ladies won this from composite team Paddock Wood and Folkestone RC with 545. East Grinstead were 5th with 406.5 and Hastings sixth with 289.
Meanwhile at Walton in the ‘West 2’ division, Worthing Harriers were 6th with 328, with the home club claiming victory with 543 points.
Several athletes put down early season English Schools' qualifying markers*. In the Junior Girls age group (School years 8/9) Lewes’s Emilie Oakden cleared 2.75m in the Pole Vault, Horsham’s Cleo Tomlinson was just four centimetres off her Long Jump best with 5.26m, Worthing’s Freya Brennand launched the Hammer out to 38.45m and Brighton’s Ruby Anning ran a 26.2s 200m.
For the Junior Boys Horsham’s Seb Wallace ran a swift 11.5s over the 80m Hurdles, a time which also takes him to the top of the UK U15 rankings. Crawley’s Alessio Anah ran 11.9s over the same distance and followed this up with an 11.7s 100m.
In the Under 13 age group there were stand out performances from Crawley’s Charlotte Wormley with a 3:52.9 1200m at the Thames Valley track. Whilst at Lewes, Brighton throwers Dulcie Yelling - javelin and Kathleen Keaney - shot, threw 30.40m and 9.52m respectively.
*View the 2018 English Schools' standards HERE.
Melanie Anning
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