Chichester youngsters compete well against quality opposition
Phil Baker See more local sport throughout the week at www.chichester.co.uk Chichester’s under 17s and under 20s competed well in their latest Youth Development League match at Bournemouth on Sunday. Against some high quality opposition from the four other teams representing 10 clubs from all over the South, Chichester’s squad of 15 athletes came away with a number of race wins and numerous personal best performances. The club’s most successful athlete was Alice Coxrusbridge who used her considerable powers of endurance to battle through a high pollen count in gusty wind conditions to win the under 20 3000 metres and steeplechase after being narrowly pipped over 1500 metres early in the match. The 18 year old even summoned up reserves of energy to run the opening leg of the 4 x 400 metres relays at the end of the match. Also in the 3000 metres was Oliva Toms on her return after injury to convincingly win the under 17 race in a very creditable time of 10 minutes 58.6 seconds. Elsewhere on the track Rachel Laurie ran a solid race to finish second in the 400 metres while the under 17 pairing of Nicole Boltwood and Emily Weymouth had another busy afternoon with the long jump sandwiched between the 800 metres and the steeplechase with both girls competing in one of the relays. In the sprints, Fleur Hollyer ran a speedy 13.1.seconds in the 100 metres backed up well by Emily Russell and newcomer to the team Kaci Rowland who adapted well to the competition in her first match of such a high standard. The trio ran well in windy conditions later in the match and combined with Weymouth for a speedy 4 x 100 metres relay. In the field events, Rowland scored a personal best in the high jump while Chichester also scored good points thanks to the pairing of Millie Grant and Alexia Everley in the shot and discus. Grant was not quite able to reproduce her 10 metre form of the previous week in the schools cup was was good enough to get 2nd place in the A string with over 9 metres with Everley winning the B string. Everley then came out on top in the discus for third A string with Grant this time winning the B string. Everley followed this up with another third place in a national class hammer competition against 50 metres plus athletes. In the men’s events Cellan Robinson continued his form as an all-rounder with two good sprints followed by a personal bests of 5.15 in the long jump and 10 metres 56 in the shot put. Likewise Alfie Spurle is expanding his range of events with 400 metres on the rack as well as long jump, triple jump and javelin. For the under 17s Liam Dunne had another chance to run a tactical race in the 800 metres by waiting until the home straight before striding away from the opposition in a relatively modest 2 minutes 3.3 seconds. Using the 400 metres to sharpen up his speed, Dunne was edged out into third place in a blanket finish to record a personal best of 52.7 seconds. The two other under 17 men in action also had the satisfaction of coming away with new personal best marks. DJ Barth ran a speedy 12.0 seconds over 100 metres as well as a new height of 1.55 in the high jump while Archie Sadler was pleased to knock another six seconds from his previous best in the 1500 metres with 4.50.7, this in conjunction with having solid performances in the pole vault and steeplechase.