Young Eastbourne athletes shine - and show future is bright

That much is clear from a fantastic team effort at a Sussex Under 15 League meeting that led to an excellent third place for Eastbourne Rovers’ youngsters, behind Brighton and Hove AC and Crawley AC.

With nine clubs represented first places were hard to come by, but a string of second, third and fourth positions boosted the club’s score.

Most successful event of the day for Eastbourne was the girls’ high jump where new member Eva Grandi and experienced Josie Usher cleared 1.40m to win the A and B strings. Eva and Josie also achieved good positions in the 100m and 200m.

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With support from Jemima Scott (3rd B 200m), Raya Petrova (4th A 300m and 800m), Freda Pearce (5th A 1500m), Aoife Cherrill (3rd B 300m) and Katy Brown (3rd A 75m hurdles), the track events brought in good points and a host of PBs.

The field competitions saw many girls taking part in events such as discus and shot put for the first time, and it was thanks to these performances that such a good final result was achieved. Hannah Anseiro, Chae Wai and Elissa Kovac gained experience in non-scoring events (100m, 800m and long jump) and will be looking to be part of the scoring team in the next match on June 24.

Highest points scorers for the boys were Oscar Mizen and Ilya Korchev. Oscar’s 80m hurdles led to an excellent second place, to which he added second in the B javelin and third in the A 300m with a new best of 41.8.

Ilya ran a strong 800m, with second place behind a strong Hastings athlete in a new best of 2:11.2. He added 2nd in the B 300m and 6th in the A long jump. A PB was achieved by Teddy Jones with 23.33m in the A javelin, gaining him third place. Teddy also won the B discus.

Freddie Coope and Ethan Howcroft both gained valuable points in the sprints. They had a successful high jump, in which Ethan achieved fourth in the A competition with a new best of 1.35m and Freddie backed him up with second in the B. Tom Petherick shone with second in the B 80m hurdles, fourth in the B 800m and fifth in the B Long Jump.

The under-15 team are looking for new athletes – see www.eastbourneroversac.co.uk