Sportshall success shows club’s vitality
Chichester’s fielded a large squad of 34 athletes to finish off their Sussex Indoor Sportshall League campaign in fine style.
They took another third place at Worthing to cement third overall behind Crawley, who just beat runnersup Brighton to top spot.
Coming after another two top three finishes at the end of last season’s outdoor season, this establishes Chichester as one of the most successful junior clubs in Sussex over the past year.
Under-13s
The under-13s, in particular the boys, had some outstanding results as the mixture of cross country fitness combined with Sportshall speed gave the club 100 per cent success in the fourlap races.
Isla Pearson teamed up with Isabella Lendrum to domibate the girls’ race.
Max Gayle, back from competing for the Sussex under 13 cross country team in Nottingham, strolled away field in the boys’ A string. Joe Stewart showed a clean pair of heels in the B string race.
All-rounder Frank James and Ivo Edgar added strength in track and field events while Levi Pearce and Reuben Hughes completed the boys’ squad to give them overall victory in the age group for the season.
Maya Stair and Olive Pring used ther experience to good effect while Chloe Lendrum and Esme Richards completed the squad.
Under-11s
Ethan Cowell and Isaac Page had a convincing win in the paarlauf relay while Nathaniel Jolly and Seb Berger used cross country endurance to good effect.
Making up the squad were
Fraser Boden, Finlay Hill, Eddie Richards and Toby Lambert who all made a useful contribution.
For the girls, Poppy Alden, Olivia Pearson, Matilda Hammond, Leah Stopps and Imogen Younghusband showed their Corporate Challenge form to good effect over shorter indoor distances.
Completing the U11 team were Eryn Johnson, Billie Sutton and Evangeline Allen.
Under-15s
The U15 squad was weaker in numbers but the six in action made their mark.
The girls’ quartet tackled sprints and middle distance as well as standing triple jump and vertical jump and the 4x2-lap relay.
Kitty Goodband and Macie Ship were joined by Hazel Peters and Elle Johnson with all four giving a good account.
In the U15 boys, Austin Stack shone in the vertical and triple jump and teamed up with Ben Stewart for the eight-lap paarlauf relay, after Stewart had already been in action in the six-lap.
For Stewart, this came at the end of five days of intense sporing endeavour.
The Bishop Luffa pupil represented his school by winning the Corporate Challenge U15 race; two days later he was on the coach to represent Siussex at the English Schools championships in Yorkshire.
There was no lie-in the next day as a rugby match for Chichester RFC U14s was calling – then, without time to clean mud from his legs, it was off to Worthing for the indoor athletics.
It was without doubt a fine example of team spirit.