Chichester decathlete Roe roars to national best

It is almost exactly 20 years since Roe, with twin brother Sam, made his mark as part of Chichester’s talented under-13 team showing promise in sprints and jumps.

Now 30, he has trained in medicine and for the past few years has been based in the midlands. Roe has developed his sprinting speed to go with his jumping ability and has worked on his strength to boost his points score in the decathlon’s throwing events.

After a hiatus through injury five years ago, hard work has paid off – culminating in a superb fourth place at the UK National Championships in Manchester last weekend with a new personal best score of 6,937 points from the ten events.

That not only broke his own Chichester club record but placed him third on the all-time Sussex list.

What was even more amazing about his performance was that all athletes in Manchester had to battle against strong gusting winds, so much so that the high jump bar had to be held in place at one point by the officials.

Roe’s list of performances make inspiring reading: 100m 11.02 sec; 110m hurdles 15.66 sec; 400m 50.59 sec; high jump 1.99m (new outdoor best); long jump 7.07m (new life time best); pole vault 3.70m; shot 11.31m; discus 32.47m; javelin 48m, finishing off with an energy sapping 1500m in 4.35.38 at the end of the competition – won by Elliiot Thompson, son of former Olympic champion Daley.

CLEAN SWEEP

Two of Chichester Runners’ talented ex-juniors can boast a clean sweep of all the club senior records between them.

In the space of two days, Will Broom and Ned Potter broke the club 800m and 3000m respectively to go with the 1500m and 5000m records they already hold.

Teammates at Loughborough University for the past two years, much of their running has been done in the midlands and the north.

Broom, in a British milers competition at Eltham, South London,recorded a new best time of 1min 52.9sec for the two-lap race while a day previously Potter and other Chichester athletes travelled to Worthing for an evening open meeting.

Potter covered the first four laps in 66 seconds, too much for the rest of the field.

He crossed the line in a fine 8.20.9 to smash his personal best by over 20 seconds and set a new Chi Runners senior mark.

In the same race Conrad Meagher set a new best time of 9.13.8.

And Liam Dunne set a new lifetime best with 1.52.7 winning the 800m, with younger brother Josh close behind in just under two minutes.

The club’s top sprinters were in action with and produced good times.

DJ Barth was near his best with a 11.22sec 100m as was Fleur Hollyer with 13.29 in the women’s race.

Amelie McGurk achieved new best times in both 100m and 200m with 13.4 and 27.1sec respectively with U15 Eve Langford posting a season’s best of 13.9sec in the 100m.

Under-15 match at Brighton

Chichester’s new batch of under 15’s gave a good account of themselves in Brighton in the second round of the Sussex League.

Sam Wyatt gave the club the only A string win of the evening in the boys’ high jump as well as runners-up spot in the discus.

In middle distance races Stanley Wilkes, Ben Ward and Noah Collins were joined by Kai Lendrum and William Allen. The five picked up good scores at 800m and 1500m and crucial points in shot, javelin and long jump. First timer Daniel Ellis had a storming runners-up spot in the 80m hurdles.

Sprinter Anna Stangroom and Jess Beach took part in the throws with both showing great promise.