A podium full of medals and a county record were among the highlights for Sussex Schools athletes on the first day of the 2023 English Schools Championships in Birmingham.
Last year Worthing Hammer thrower, Alice Howie, dominated the Junior Girls' age group, winning top honours across the board. Her success has continued. Despite being at the bottom of the Intermediate age group, Alice is the UK rankings leader and once again delivered on demand with a 56.11m victory, some six metres ahead of the silver medallist.
In the Intermediate Boys High Jump, Brighton and Hove's Dylan Calvey battled to silver, jumping a four-centimetre personal best of 1.94m, just missing out on gold on countback. Both Alice and Dylan will now represent England at the SIAB Schools International next weekend.
Lewes's Beth Boyes was in a four-way tie for the silver medal in the Junior Girls Pole Vault with 2.70m . Her clubmate Ava Hayes was sixth with the same height.
Crawley's James Pratt held his form to throw 57.98m for the bronze medal in the Senior Buys javelin. In the Intermediate Girls javelin, Brighton's Dulcie Yelling found her form with a personal best and county record of 48.56m, which gave her the bronze medal.
There were fourth and sixth places for Brighton's Louis Opoku - 58.42m – and Barney Hastings 53.37m in the Intermediate Boys javelin. Meanwhile, their clubmates Amber Purcell Senior Girls Triple Jump -11.11m - and Stella Kalman Intermediate Girls Long Jump – 5.18m were both seventh.
Arun Gibbons threw 13.05m for sixth place in the Junior Boys Shot Put. Arlo Serjeant High Jumped 1.69m for eighth place, equalling his PB.
Several athletes qualified for finals on Saturday, including; Crawley's Noa Maoundus and Sophie Hogton in the Senior Girls 100m Hurdles, their clubmate Isabella Akpoveta after winning her heat of the Junior Girls 100m in a PB of 12.29s, Senior Boys; Brighton's Alex Riley in the 1500m, Phoenix 800m runner Miles Waterworth and Blackheath's Luke Dronfield in the 400m Hurdles.
See the Day 1 results via this link: https://entry4sports.co.uk/#/results/482
Thanks to Andy Cox - AC_Phots - for the wonderful pictures.