Chichester athletes show spirit at Dartford fixture – and shine in Sussex track and field championships

It is exactly 29 years since Chichester entered their first ever athletics league in 1994, ten years after the formation of the club in 1984.

Dartford was the destination for the opening Southern League fixture of the season with Chichester taking a smaller team than usual but pleased to be a separate team again after joiuning forces with Worthing Harriers for the past two years.

What the team lacked in numbers they more than made up for in quality with sprinting duo of Fleur Hollyer and Amelie McGurk scoring a ckean sweep in both 100 and 200m.

McGurk then went on to finish runner-up in the 400m battling against a string headwind down the back staright and top bend.

After a few years away from the sport, multi-eventer Ethan Brown showed good all-round speed and strength with good marks in both long jump and javelin plus good speed over 200m and a fine dislay of hurdle technique in the 110m sprint hurdles.

With a wide variety of age groups involved in the league from under-17s to veteran, three of Chichester’s 2022 under-15 squad pitted themselves against some good county standard athletes from Kent, Sussex and Hampshire with all three acquitting themselves with credit.

Jess Beach coped well with the heavier implements in the shot put and set a good mark in the discus later in the competition.

Both Sam Wyatt and Sam Cato have been part of the club’s under-15 cross country squad over the winter but both stepped up well into the senior ranks with Cato showing good speed over 100m and 400m with Wyatt opting forb the 200m and long jump. The pair combined to gain near maximum points in the high jump.

With the next fixture at Lewes on June 18, Chichester hope to have nearly a full strength squad to challenge for top spot.

Night of the 10,000m

Ben Morton lined up amid the cream if British middle distance running at Parliament Hill, London, in the Night of the 10,000s, now one of the highlights of the summer fixture list.

Morton was rewarded with a new best of 32min 35.6sec to go with his road 10k best of 32.09 set in Trafford in March.

Sussex track and field chamoionships

Several Chichester Runners & AC athletes competed at the Sussex track and field championships at Crawley.

Eve Langford (U17) ran extremely well in the 100m heats to get to the final, where she ran a personal best time of 13.30sec for fifth place.

Amelie McGurk (U20) looked strong in the final of the 200m, finishing fourth in a new PB 26.80sec.

She went on to produce probably the best performance of her career in the 400m final.

With her powerful kick she reeled in the leaders to finish just 0.03sec behind second to take bronze in a sparkling new PB time of 61.16sec.

In the final of the 100m, Fleur Hollyer (U20) led up to 80m but, but having lost some speed endurance through a winter injury, had to settle for fifth place in 13.35sec.

Josh Dunne retained his 800m U17 title to finish in just outside two minutes.

There was a good 5000m run from Ben Morton who set a new personal best of 15.53 in the senior race to finish just outside the medals.

Ben Ward took bronze in the U17 race with 17.34 in his first track race over the distance.

Anya Barrett ran good races over 800m and 1500m, with Harry Dunne just outside his personal best in the U15 800m.

In the same age group, there was a trio of Chichester athletes in the 1500m with all three setting best times.

Stanley Wilkes led them home in 5th in 4.41 with Harry Cruttenden at 5.13 and Arthue Reynolds at 5.44.

Grace Haworth took silver in the U15 javelein.

Round-up

Alice Cox-Rusbridge set one of the fastest ever times by a Chichester women with a 1hr 25.19min clocking in the Battersea Park half marathon – then managed a new PB of 19.20 in the Bognor parkrun a week later.

Mike Houston set a fine personal best in the Newport Wales marathon recently in a time of 2.36.18.

Houston showed excellent powers of recovery by finishing 4th in the recent Bognor 10k and helping Chichester Runners win the team prize with teammates James Baker in 6th and Callum Lorimer 25th.

Junior parkrun

Many juniors have lined up over the years at the Chichester Junior parkrun on a Sunday morning and not many have broken 8 minutes for the 2km course and just a mere four runners had broken seven minutes... before 13 year old Ben Stewart lined up last Sunday.

Just six minutes and three seconds later the Chichester athlete crossed the line to put himself at the top of the all-time rankings by a clear 17 seconds over the rest with the previout top two, both London athletes, relegated to 2nd and 3rd with Stewart pleased that a local runner now heads the list.