Third place finish is feather in cap for young Chichester athletes

It kept up the club’s record of never having finished out of the top five in the event, in which many Sussex stars of the future are in action for the first time.

Result

1 Brighton & Hove 470pts

2 Crawley AC 444

3 Chichester Runners 410

4 Eastbourne Rovers 316

5 East Grinstead 154

6 HY Runners 136

7 Lewes AC 126

8 Phoenix AC 124

9 Worthing Harriers 123

10 Haywards Heath 102

11 Horsham Blue Star 92

12 Hastings AC 83

In the girls’ match, Chichester had a great star when Annie Lock stormed the 75m to win by a clear margin. She nearly repeated the feat when she had to give way to the Eastbourne No1.

Elsa Nicholson and Olive Pring provided useful backing in the B strings to score valuable points.

Isabella Lendrum ran a good 1000m and partnered Nicholson in the hurdles while Juliette Stangroom tackled the 600m and gave good support to Grace Frith in the high jump.

Frith and Pring were in action in the long jump and showed the importance of having two equal athletes, resulting in a 6th in the A string and 2nd in the B string.

In the three throws Alicia Cramp, Anna Wyatt and Chloe Lendrum picked up a massive 65 points from a combined maximum of 72.

Cramp joined Lock in being one of Chichester’s only two A string winners with a new personal best distance in the shot putt of 7.66m to win by nearly half a metre.

Cramp notched a 2nd place in the javelin with Wyatt 2nd in the B string for 22 points from the event.

Wyatt was 9cm of winning the discus and with Lendrum gaining solid 3rd places in shot and discus, the trio far exceeded their expected tally.

In the boys’ match, while having no individual A string winners, the boys squad showed the importance of teamwork with nearly every performance in the top half of the field.

Humphrey Monhemius was well in touch with the fastest sprnters in the county and produced two very good 4th places in the 75m and 150m with Levi Pearce and Ivo Edgar providing good support in B string races.

Max Gayle and Pearce made a competitive 600m pairing, finishing just over a second apart, while Morgan Rice and Joe Stewart were equally effective in the 1000m.

Gayle was joined by newcomer Mikey Lewis in the hurdles and prodiced the boys’ best combined event tally with 22 out of 24 points.

Top jumper Reuban Shewan joined Lewis in the high jump with both clearing a solid 1.30m – then teamed up with Reuben Hughes for 3rd A and 2nd B in the long jump.

Frank James was third in the discus and a win for Freddie Gay in the B string was a bonus. With James and Stewart doing well in the shot and Edgar and Gay in the javelin, Chichester amassed enough points to finish third, nearly 100 points clear of Eastbourne and break the 400 points barrier with winners Brighton and Crawley.