Squad of 17 produce a fine all-round display

Athletics A squad of 17 athletes produced a fine all-round display at the Withdean Stadium, Brighton last Friday to retain their third place trophy in the Sussex under-15 athletics final.

In a battling display over 26 events, Chichester were able to assert themselves for the fifth year in succession as one of the top three Sussex clubs in the under-15 age group.

The winners were once again Crawley AC, who were too strong for hosts Brighton & Hove but Chichester in third place had nearly 100 points to spare over fourth placed Horsham Blue Star with the remaining six clubs trailing in their wake.

Match result: 1. Crawley AC 480 points; 2. Brighton & Hove 453; 3. Chichester Runners & AC 346; 4. Horsham Blue Star Harriers 249 5. East Grinstead 170; 6. Lewes AC 150; 7. Worthing & District Harriers 134; 8. Eastbourne Rovers 96; 9. Haywards Heath 43; 10. Brighton Phoenix 42

With just a single A string first place of the entire match, Chichester’s success was down to the team work of the whole squad.

It was Ben Rose on the track and Hugo Martell in the throws who set the ball rolling with two fine second places.

Noah Campbell stepped up in the B string to gain another runners-up spot to set Chichester on their way with 18 points out of a maximum 20 for the event.

Elsewhere on the track Nathan Ewins and Arthur Dearlove formed a useful partnership in the 100 metres while brothers Noah and Micah Campbell were effective in the hurdles.

Toby Greatorex and Luke Cobden paired up in the 800 m and the club’s sole gap in the team being the 1500 metres where none of the distance specialists were available for the match.

Nevertheless, the points kept coming with Cameron Wilson setting a new personal best in the long jump with Cobden winning the B string. It was the same story in the high jump with Ewins A string and Micah Campbell ensuring maximum B string points with the same height. Greatorex finished the tally of individual events with a strong javelin throw while the 4 x 300 metres quartet of Noah and Micah Campbell, Dearlove and Rose saved the best till last with a stirring win in just over 3 minutes to hold off the fast finishi9ng Brighton athlete over the last 20 metres.

The theme of team work was repeated in the girls match with all eight athletes in action able to be versatile.

As with the boys, the range of ability across both track and field events was the key and nowhere was this more epitomized than at the start of the match with Erin Hobbs partnering Amelie Mcgurk in the 300 metres and then quickly changing out of her spikes to join Chloe Noble in the hammer circle. Unlike the boys, the girls had a full quartet of middle distance runners with Cerys Dickinson and Gemma Appleton battling over 800 metres while Mcgurk and Tamsin Anelay joined forces over 1500 metres with all four showing promise for the forthcoming cross country season. In the sprints it was Cassie Bailey who stepped in to the 100 metres with Dickinson offering good support in the B string as well as joining Jaimie Gibb in the high jump with Gibbs and Appleton joining up for the long jump. With Noble the specialist thrower going on to the shot and discus after the hammer, it was the rest of the squad who ensured that the events were well covered with Bailey proving to be a good partner in the shot as was Anelay in the discus with the team completed by Mcgurk and Anelay forming a new partnership in the javelin for more unexpected points. All 8 girls played their part either in the 4 x 100 or 4 x 300 metres relays at the end of the match to ensure that Chichester came home delighted with retaining their hard won trophy of the previous year.