Sussex made a steady start to the English Schools championships at Birmingham winning a complete set of medals.
Pride of place must go to reigning champion Lizzie Korczak in the intermediate (under-17) javelin, who won her third successive title with a fine throw of 47.70m. However, it was not an easy victory as Harriet Mortlock from Essex threw 47.47m. Peanut Meekings did well to finish eighth with 40.66m. Lizzie’s throw earnt her another English Schools’ vest for the Schools International match next weekend.
There was another medal in the javelin throw when James Pratt set a PB to take the bronze medal in the junior (under-15) age group with 52.26m
The third medal of the day came in the senior (u19) triple jump where Morgan Hayward leapt a PB of 13.99m for the silver medal while Louis Goffin jumped 13.43m for seventh place.
There was a near miss in the inter pole vault where Ivy Spencer cleared 3.25m for fourth place.
There were several other seventh places, three coming in the inter boys group with Tom Ridley clearing 1.82m in the high jump, Will Snashall clearing 3.90m in the pole vault and Ivo Pitts throwing the javelin 55.59m.
Willian Sutton cleared 1.69m for his seventh place in the junior boys and Rebecca Tyler putt the inter shot 12.26m.
Several athletes have fought their way through the qualifying rounds to reach Saturday’s finals notably Elise Farrow in the senior 800m with the fastest qualifying time of 2:10.93s and senior 1500m runner Tom Eames clocking 4:08.57s for second place in his heat and both of these are possible medallists.
by Reg Hook