In a first for Sussex Schools AA, their annual Combined Events fixture at K2, in which Surrey Schools AA has participated for the last few years, became one joint competition for places and medals.
In dreary weather the turn out from both county's was disappointing, with Sussex fielding no athletes at all in the Junior Girls pentathlon event, which may well also be a first.
Only four athletes took part in the Intermediate Boys competition. Brighton & Hove's Henry Kirwan (Cardinal Newman), competing for the first time this season, bagged himself a bronze medal behind two Surrey boys, with a 5.38m long jump, a 16.1 seconds 100m hurdles, a 1.60m high jump, 24.21m javelin and 2:23.7 800m.
Considering Kirwan only started athletics last year, competed solely as a sprinter and has not trained for athletics this winter, the performances show promise. His final score was 2097, behind Surrey's Barnaby Corry on 2132 and George Asprey's gold medal total of 2637.
For the Intermediate Girls, Crawley's Isabelle Humphreys (Christ's Hospital), was the only Sussex entrant alongside three Surrey athletes. With performances of 19.39m - javelin, 12.5 - 80mH, 5.01m in the long jump, 1.58m - high jump and a 2:41.4 - 800m, Humphreys took the silver medal behind Madison Hutton, scoring 2843 points to Hutton's 3151.
The Junior Boys Pentathlon had eight competitors. Crawley's Jabar Busari achieved silver with 2070 points behind Surrey's Diego Rodriguez. Busari had gone into the final event as the leader but lost out on the gold medal to Rodriguez, who was 11 seconds quicker over the 800m. However, Busari put together a good set of results with a 1.51m high jump, 12.5s for the 80mH, 4.95m - long jump and 8.92m in the shot, before his 2:36.3 800m.
For year 7 athletes there is a quadrathon. The girls event was the most competitive of the day, with 10 entrants across the two county's. Brighton's Dulcie Yelling (Varndean), the recent winner of the under 13 Minithon at the county championships, came third with 1792 points behind Arabella Wilson and Sienna Kidd. Kidd had the smallest winning margin of the day scoring 1933 to Wilson's 1925.
For the year 7 boys, Crawley's Elliot Hanslow and Christ Hospital's Daniel Boboye, were silver and bronze medallists, with 1232 and 1043 points respectively, behind Surrey's Oscar Webb who scored 1339.
View the full results HERE.
