Chichester athletes battle well in Southern League fixture at Lewes

Fielding a squad across all age groups, this was nowhere more evident than in the women’s events where the 11-strong Chichester squad comprised four under-17s, one under 20, four seniors and a couple of veteran athletes with an age range from 15 to over 60.

Their best event of the day was in scoring a double A and B string win in the 1500m for a maximum 12 points in the six-team match.

Anya Barrett ran a well-judged race in tracking the leaders over the opening two laps before sweeping past her rivals with 200m to go for a new winning personal best in just under the five-minute barrier.

Rachel Laurie, meanwhile, was a comfortable winner of the B string, this after the same pair had combined well in the 400m with Barrett again improving her previous best with 62.8sec.

Fleur Hollyer and Eve Langford formed a good sprint pairing as well as scoring valuable points in the long jump and setting a fast time for runners-up spot in the 4 x 100m relay with Barrett and Laurie.

Ela Pemberton was delighted to set a new personal best in finishing second in the A string 800m, this after tackling the gruelling 400m hurdles for the first time.

Charlotte Bullard made a welcome return to the Chichester team with a second place in the B string 800m. And there was another new face in the squad with Natalie Haarer using her cross country strength to good effect in the 5000m, with veteran over- 50 Elizabeth Robinson justifying her place with a fine B string win.

Jess Beach headed the throws with good performances in both shot and hammer where she was more than usefully backed up by Charlotte Reading, usually a middle distance runner but turning her hand to events to be the club’s highest individual scorer on the day.

This included teaming up with Amanda Godfrey, the oldest member of the squad as an over-60, in the triple jump, which left Reading to tackle the 1500m steeplechase at the end of the match to win a thrilling race, outsprinting her closest rival after the final hurdle.

The half a dozen Chichester men in action all perfomed with credit but with four still in the under-17 age group and one over 55, they were up against some strong athletes from the other clubs, especially Worthing Harriers in the sprints, Lewes and Hastings HY Runners in the middle distance events and Havant and Horsham in the throws and jumps.

This did not stop Sam Wyatt and Monty Hill, both members of last year’s under-15s, making the best possible start to score a double first in the 400m hurdles, both tackling the event for the first time.

The pair also scored useful points in the 400m and high jump before teaming up with Barret and Pemberton for a runners up spot in the mixed 4 x 400m relay at the end of the match.

Noah Collins and Digby Fulford ran personal best times in the 1500m and 5000m respectively before teaming up for the steeplechase, again a pair of athletes trying a new event for the first time.

Senior Mikey Kwoka and over-55 veteran Jim Garland made a good pairing in the 800m with Kwoka picking up points in the 5000m and long jump and Garland in the 1500m and javelin before both joined up with Laurie and Hollyer for a stirring finish in the A string 4 x 400m.

Under-15 match

at Brighton

The second match in the 2023 Sussex under-15 league saw another batch of good perofmences and PBs.

Daniel Ellis dipped under the 13-second barrier for the first time with a 12.9 clocking.

Ben Stewart opted for the 100 and 200m with bests of 12.4 and 25.5 respectively, not to mention a shot put best of 9.88m.

Stanley Wilkes ran 4.40 for the first time in the 1500m and was well supported by Harry Cruttenden in 5.11.

Kai Lendrum turned his hand to the throws with discus and javelin.

Both girls in action tackled e vents other than their usual ones with Grace Haworth using the 200m for speed plus the javelin while Molly Smithers ran well over 800m .

Smithers and Stewart were in action for Sussex the following day at the South East Schools inter-counties in Basingstoke.

There, they smashed their PBs over their favourite distances, Smithers breaking the 4.50 barrier for the first time in the 1500m and Stewart running 2.08 in the 800m.

sussexworld.co.uk/sport