Hail Helen! Chichester Runners have their first British record holder
Half a dozen of Chichester’s veteran runners travelled to Lewes for the Sussex Masters Track and Field Championships and returned with a clutch of medals – including one truly outstanding performance.
Not only the highlight of the whole meeting but the standout performance from a national perspective, Chichster super-vet Helen Dean provided the magic in winning the 800m in the over-70 category.
The Selsey based runner has shown in recent years her prowess on the road with UK No1 spots in 5k and 10k distances but it is only recently that Dean has turned her attention to the shorter track distances.
Something of her potential was shown recently at the Night of Miles meeting at the new hichester track when she leapt to the top of the UK rankings for 2026 with her 6.40 clocking, just seven seconds outside the British record.
This led Dean to wondering how she would compare at something even shorter so she sent off entries for the 200m and 800m in the Sussex championships.
After a reasonable time in the half-lap event, Dean was fully focused on the longer 800m with a target time of under three minutes which would put her in the top two in her age group for 2026.
With younger runners in her race to spur her on, the Chichester athlete went through the bell in 85 seconds. Hardly slowing over the second lap, Dean clocked an 86-seccond split to finish in 2.51.1 to go to the top of the UK rankings by a clear six seconds.
The excitement did not finish there, however, as a close look at the British Masters website revealed that the over-70 800m record stood at 2.51.49, set by the inspirational Angela Copson in 2017.
As a result Chichester Runners & AC have their first-ever British record holder. Even more tantalising for Dean has been to find out that the the current world record, held by Frenck athlete Alson Bourgeois, stands at 2.50.22, less than a second faster than Dean’s new British record.
While Dean’s performance was the highlight for the Chichester squad, there were other noteworthy performances including a welcome return to competition for Andy Hall with an impressive hammer throw of 37.41m which puts him 7th in the UK rankings – as well as a throw of 13.91m in the weight to rank him number four in the UK in his over-60 age group.
Amanda Godfey showed age is no barrier to record a time of 69.2 in the 300m hurdles, the second best in the UK this year, plus a triple jump of 6.19m to go into the UK top 10.
All these marks resulted in Sussex gold medals on the day with Chichester’s tally added to by Barbara Brunsden in the over-75 age group.
There were akso personal best performances from James Savage on the track and shot put in the over-60 age group as well as Elaine Cruttenden competing in the 800m and triple jump in the over-50 bracket.