Crawley and Brighton & Hove took the honours in the final matches in his season Youth Development League matches last weekend, which were mainly for Sussex clubs.
After losing 2020 to the Lockdown all clubs are finding it difficult, to fill athletes in all events in the Lower, Under 15 and Under 13 teams.
In the Under 17 and Under 20 Upper League matches on Sunday there were far fewer clubs involved and it was more obvious the limited number of athletes who have returned to athletics following their year off.
This year’s competitions were more local groupings, than usual, but without promotion and relegation. Whether this structure will be repeated next year or the Leagues will revert to the situation in 2019 has yet to be decided.
In both Upper and Lower leagues there were far too many gaps in events and it could take a few years for support to be built up before it would be practical to return to pre 2019 structures.
In the Lower age group matches on Saturday. Crawley won the Lower Division South match at K2 Scoring 494 points to Tonbridge’s444, Horsham Blue Star’s 265, Holland Sports 193 and East Grinstead 156.
Among the AAA 1st class standard winning performances at K2 were Crawley’s Elliot Hanslow’s 11.59s in the U15 80m hurdles, Will Thurston’s U15 shot put of 13.55m, Charlie Gossage’ 33.46m U13 javelin throw and Megan Vereeten’s U15 javelin throw of 35.93m while Horsham’s Madeline Way leapt 5.29m in the U15 long jump
At Withdean Stadium Brighton & Hove won the Lower Division South Coast match with 352 points ahead of Lewes 235, Worthing & District’s 202 and Hasting who scored 86 points.
Among the Grade one winners at Withdean were a brilliant personal best from Lewes’s Grace Tuesday in the U15 800m in 2:17.8s and Brighton & Hove’s Dillan Moss in the U15 200m in 24.0s, Dulcie Yelling’s U15 javelin throw of 39.20m and U13 800m runner Raphael Kelly’s 2:17.5s.
In the Upper Age Group the South South league match at K2 on Sunday the Crawley club amassed 424 points to Brighton & Hove’s 238, the combined Lewes and Haywards Heath’s Team Sussex 132 and the Holland Sports and Reigate teams 88 points.
Grade one winners in this group were Crawley’s U20 Triple jumper Mame Sow who cleared 12.40m and U17 high jumper Will Sutton's 2.01m winning clearance and he also gained Grade 2 standard when winnng the long jump with 6.25m and javelin thrower James Pratt’s throw of 58.80m while Brighton & Hove’s Josh Clarke was also over the AAA 1st class standard with 52.64m in second place.