Chichester’s young athletes enjoy storming start to track and field season

A full squad of 25 athletes excelled themselves to finish equal second with Horsham Blue Star, with only host club Crawley AC ahead at the end of the match and leaving East Grinstead, Worthing and Haywards Heath trailing in their wake.

While the secret of the team’s success was in picking up points across the board, there were notable individual performances to spearhead the challenge.

Isaac Page and Jack Ford provided the highlights for the boys with a double A and B string win in both hurdles and high jump while Amelie Adams strode away from the rest of the field in the 1000m for the girls.

Elsewhere for the boys George Butt and Harrison Sopp combined well over 150m with Butt partnering Alfie Luxford in the 1000m to good effect.

Maddox Matthews and Sebastian Berger showed their versatility by picking up good points in both 600m and shot.

To complete the boys’ scoring Finlay Hill, Ethan Cowell and Fraser Boden made useful contributions in sprints, long jump, javelin and discus.

The girls’ squad of 15 broke the club record for the first match of the season with many having their first ever experience of athletics in a large stadium.

Matilda Hammond, Xanthe Austin and Sylvie Pring ran well in the sprints while Adams was joined by Olivia Pearson in the 1000m for Chichester’s best track points of the event.

Team manager Amanda Godfrey used the same tactic as with the boys to good effect by pairing Poppy Alden and Sophia Glover in both high jump and hurdles.

Between them they managed three runners-up places which, when combied with the boys, provided the club’s best pair of events of the whole match.

Sophie Gray and Isla Jenkins teamed up for the 600m and provided good resulrs in the javelin. Connie Jones spearheaded the other two throws in shot and discus while Ella Ford supported Hammond in the long jump.

The league also gives under-11s a chance to gain experience as non-scorers which provided opportunities for Mollie Matthews, Annie Harris, Florentina Clew and Olivia Page to have their first taste of club track and field athletics.