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Thursday, August 14th, 2008 (6:15pm) Sussex Under 13 League Holidays were always going to give us a problem for the third Sussex League match in Worthing on Wednesday, August 6th but a team of only 5 girls and 2 boys was rather disappointing. However all 7 athletes produced excellent performance. The girls 1,000 metres race saw two excellent runs by our athletes with Eva Child winning the A string (3 minutes 39 seconds) and Gemma Francis winning the B string. Lucy Steel was a very good second in the 600 metres as was Chloe Hollamby in the B string 75 metres. Gemma Akehurst came third in the 75 metres A string and went over 6 metres in the shot putt. For the boys Ryan Spivey again won the 75 metres hurdles and also set a personal best of 1.44 metres in the high jump, where Richard Astley won the B string high jump. Full results can be found here. The under 13 team have one more fixture, on Sunday, September 7th at K2 in Crawley. Let's have more athletes please. Inter-County matches Last weekend Tessa Martin represented Sussex in an under 17 inter-county match at Basildon in Essex. She was second in the B string with 9.97 metres. Road Runners Our road runners continue to be very active with a series of runs over a wide range of surfaces. Paul Henshaw found the toughest race on one of this summer's rare hot days - a "Tough Guy" race. It's supposed to be 10 miles but includes running through low tunnels, on aerial walkways, through water, mud, nettles and the odd electric shock. Not just once round the route, but twice. 3 and a half hours it took. Simon Moore has also been busy with three races in July. The tough and hot Jack and Jill Windmills race in Clayton on the South Downs saw him second in his over 40 age group. He followed this with 19th place in the off-road hilly Gatton 10 kilometre race (about 44 and a half minutes) and finished the month with 28th place in the Elmore 7 mile race in just over 46 minutes. Lance Quirico also ran in the Gatton race in just over 48 minutes. Tony Crossley was even busier running in the Steyning Round Hill Romp on the South Downs, then to North Wales for the Snowdon Mountain Race, followed by a hilly off-road marathon before ending June in the Bewl Water 15 mile trace. Looking ahead This coming Wednesday (August 13th) there is an Open Meeting at
Brighton while next Sunday August 17th sees the Horsham Open meeting
at Broadbridge Heath. First event next Sunday is 12 o'clock. This
meeting is well worth going to. Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 (4:15pm) Southern Men's League (August 2nd) The last match of the season and our home match at Broadbridge Heath. After three third places and one last place in the previous 4 matches we needed a reasonable performance to avoid relegation - second place would be great, third would probably be OK but last would be bad news. We had a reasonable number of athletes, but it was great to see Michael Gardner arrive straight from holiday 10 minutes before the 400 metres hurdles, the first track event. He won his B string race and later won the B string 400 metres as well. In addition Phil Spivey and James Crittell were chalking up a double first in the hammer and Colin King and Graham Taylor were first and second in the pole vault. The throws continued to bring us excellent points with Phil Spivey winning the discus at the end of the day and it was great to see Lee Smith back and winning the javelin with over 40 metres. (Phil also extended his repertoire with the B string high jump.) For once the sprints and horizontal jumps didn't bring us too much, although James Brown did win the B string triple jump. On the other hand we got two second places in both of the 1500 and 5000 metres through Ben Ivorson and Colin Day. As we came towards the end of the meeting we were well ahead of Serpentine and more or less level with Tunbridge Wells. But in the end we had to be content with third place just behind Tunbridge Wells, which we thought was going to be OK in our attempt to avoid relegation. Our own results can be found here. But we didn't know what was happening in the other matches. Would the teams below us manage to fill up their teams in their own bid to avoid relegation ? And the answer was that they tried. Epsom had finished last in all their previous four matches - but yesterday they came first. In the same match Haywards Heath - who started the day below us in the league - were second behind Epsom. So where on earth did that leave us? In 13th place in the 16-team division. With two clubs being relegated we just about avoided relegation. Let's hope for a rather more comfortable 2009 season. The full league table can be found here. Going back to our own match I feel I should make some comments on one of the Tunbridge Wells athletes we were competing against - a gentleman by the name of Grant Stirling. All of our athletes would have come across him as he competed in 11 individual events during the day plus both relays. He competed in the 100, 200, 400 and 110 hurdles and all the field events except for the hammer. Over 6 metres in the long, over 13 metres in the triple, 16.8 seconds in the hurdles and in the last of his individual events he was still good enough to win the B string discus. Some athlete. Olympic Games Stories One of the good things about athletics is that club athletes can compete against international standard athletes - it wouldn't happen in most other sports. And I am aware of two of the Great Britain team in Beijing who have competed against us in our league matches. The Senior Mens team have competed against Martyn Rooney, the 400 metres runner (and maybe an outside bet for a medal), in two league matches over the last few years. He was competing for Croydon Harriers in matches at Crawley and then again the next year in Ashford. And Nathan Douglas, one of Great Britain's trio of triple jumpers, competed against the mens team 6 or 7 years ago for the Oxford City club in a match which took place at the Cambridge University track. He won the long and triple jumps as well as the 100 metres on that day. (I have a hunch that Nathan may do something a bit special in Beijing.) And talking of triple jumpers I have a little story about Phillips Idowu, who is our best hope for an athletics gold medal in Beijing. In the 1993 English Schools Championships in Blackpool he jumped 12.08 metres in the junior boys triple jump to finish 6th: He was one place and 10 centimetres ahead of our own Tim Medcalf. Indeed in the qualifying round Tim jumped further than Phillips. If you have any Olympic stories I'd love to hear them, especially if you have competed against any athletes competing in Beijing. Looking ahead Our under 13 Sussex League team are at Worthing this Wednesday (August 6th), starting at 7pm. Summer holidays will have their effect on all the teams, but let's hope we can get out a reasonable number. Next Sunday (August 10th) Phil Spivey (hammer) and Laura McGarty (triple jump) will be competing for Sussex in an inter-county match at Kingston. Open Meetings There are a number of Open Meetings coming up soon. August 13th
at Brighton, August 17th at Horsham and August 25th at Crawley.
There's still time for you to improve on your best performances
before the season comes to an end. The Horsham meeting in particular
is a good one to go to. If you need any details then talk to Lester
Medcalf or your regular coach. Monday, July 28th, 2008 (9:00pm) Southern Womens League (July 26th) The ladies team had their fourth and last match of the season at Broadbridge Heath. As it was our home match many of our officials were there by 10.30 to make sure everything was ready. 8 senior athletes and 7 juniors (including three under 13 athletes) is probably as good a turn out as we can get, especially given our lack of senior distance runners. It was a muggy and oppressive afternoon and that seemed to have an effect on our own athletes. First places were very hard to come by. And even though our senior long and triple jumpers (Laura McGarty and Tessa Martin) brought home two double firsts they were both disappointed with their own performances. Otherwise Jo Lister came first in the B string javelin after a very disappointing run in the 400 metres and Tessa completed a hat-trick of B string first places in the under 17 sprint hurdles. Chloe Hollamby and Gemma Akehurst made their first appearance in the league and both did well, as did the third under 13, Lucy Steel, who competed in one of the matches in 2007. Amy Hewitt did three no jumps in the under 15 long jump with two of them looking to be good jumps - she later took it out on the 200 metres where she cut a bit more off her personal best with 28.1 seconds. Her sprinting over the last 6 or 7 weeks has been very impressive. Full results can be found here. A special thanks to Steve Ely, Keith Steel and Alf Smart for making sure that the hurdles were in the right place at the right time - which couldn't be said for the athletics at Crystal Palace on Friday evening Under 13 Club Championships We are now able to give you the full results from the club's under 13 championships held on July 15th and 17th. Click on here to find them. Young Athletes League (July 20th) We also have most of the results from last Sunday's Young Athletes league match at Sutton, although we haven't had the relay results as yet - or the final overall score. Click here for the details that we have received. As you can see from the results the under 15 girls and under 13 girls turned out in force, while the under 13 boys numbers were very disappointing. Callum McKenzie in his first appearance did well to win the under 15 boys B string 1500 metres, while Sarah Rusling and Eva Child served up a double first in the under 13 girls 1200 metres - both Sarah and Eva beating the club record which Sarah set earlier in the season. Looking ahead This coming Saturday (August 2nd) the senior men have their last match of the season at Broadbridge Heath in what is our home match. The team are still in some danger of being relegated and will be hoping for at least third place in the match - Eastbourne, Tunbridge Wells and Serpentine are the other teams. And don't forget that in the week after the Under 13 athletes will
be at Worthing for their third match on Wednesday, August 6th. Sunday, July 20th, 2008 (9:30pm) Under 13 Club Championships We had a good couple of evenings during this last week for the under 13 club championships. A bit of drizzle on Thursday evening didn't manage to dampen the evening. While we must congratulate the winners thank you to everybody who competed, many of you having a go at events you wouldn't normally attempt. We will put up the full results during the week but the winners were: Under 13 Girls 75 metres Gemma Akehurst 11.4 seconds Under 13 Boys 75 metres Daniel Rusling 11.4 seconds Young Athletes League The last match of the season took place earlier today at Sutton. With a chilly wind blowing all afternoon, and the sun only coming out every now and again, it wasn't the best of weather for athletics. We probably came fifth out of the 7 teams, just below Horsham. Results are not available just yet and we will put them on the website as soon as we can. This coming week This coming Saturday (July 26th) the senior women and under 15
girls team have their last match of the season at Broadbridge Heath.
This is our home match and so we will need extra help. Team manager
Jill Ely will be contacting athletes. Sunday, July 13th, 2008 (4:00pm) English Schools Championships As always during the summer every week seems to be busy and these
last few days are no different. The best bit of news came from far-away
Gateshead where Tom Gardner was representing Sussex in the intermediate
boys (under 17) high jump in the English Schools Championships.
Tom came an excellent sixth with a new personal best of 1.93 metres. Tom's jump also set a new under 17 club record, beating the old record of 1.92 metres set in 1982 by Richard Booth. Sussex Under 13 Championships The Sussex Under 13 championships last weekend (July 6th) were held in some appalling wet and windy weather down at Brighton's Withdean Stadium. It was a little disappointing to find only three of our athletes competing. Ryan Spivey suffered in the high jump because of the weather and he was only able to jump 1.30 metres (compared with a best of 1.42 metres). However this was enough to give him third place. But it was again Ryan's hurdling that stood out. He won his heat in a comfortable 13.5 seconds, and then later in the final was a clear first in a winning time of 13.0 seconds. This equalled his previous best from a few weeks ago and set a new record for the Sussex Under 13 Championships. So very well done to Ryan. Eva Child ran well in the 1200 metres and her time of 4 minutes 34.0 seconds gave her a good fifth place. Izzy Turnbull was our third competitor. In the 800 metres there were two separate races with the medals going to the fastest runners from the two races. Izzy was third in her race in 2 minutes 55.6 seconds, but the medal winners all came from the other race. Southern Mens League at Bracknell And there is still yesterday's Southern Mens league match at Bracknell to tell you about. It was going to be a difficult enough match against teams quite a bit higher than ourselves in the league table. We weren't helped by three withdrawals on the morning of the match - in addition to Phil Spivey being away on holiday. However with the enthusiasm of the under 17 athletes (and the enthusiasm of the over 55 year old Graham Taylor) we were able to fill most of the events. Nevertheless our expectations were that we would finish fourth. We made an excellent start with a double first in the 400 metres hurdles and as the afternoon went on our athletes began to come second and third where we were expecting third at best. And in some cases even better than that. Brett Caiger was first in the B string long jump and Matt Burroughs followed this with a first in the B string triple jump - while earlier Graham Taylor won the B string pole vault. Later James Crittell surprised himself by winning the B string shot. Among the A strings Dan Medcalf, following his hamstring problems at Bromley two weeks ago, had a series of good second places. And last, but by no means least, Colin Day, Steve Warner, Tim Ivorson and Graham Taylor kept the points ticking over in the longer races. And much to our surprise we found ourselves in third place at the end of the match, just edging ahead of Herne Hill. Full results can be found here. Southern Womens League match at Croydon We now have the full results - you can find them here. This coming week This week continues to be busy. On Tuesday and Thursday we have
our own club under 13 championships at Imberhorne School (normal
training for older athletes) and then next Sunday we have the fourth
and last Young Athletes match of the season at Sutton. Sunday, July 6th, 2008 (7:00pm) The club under 13 championships will be held on the evenings of Tuesday, July 15th and Thursday, July 17th at Imberhorne School. Alf Smart has been distributing entry forms to all of our under 13 athletes. If you haven't had one then please make sure you see Alf. We will need help from parents with the field events. Please talk to Alf. This coming Saturday (July 12th) the senior mens team go to Bracknell
for the 4th match of their season. Again the match looks to be a
difficult one against teams from Bracknell, Herne Hill Harriers
and Ealing. Team Manager Eddie Vermeer will be contacting team members. Sunday, June 29th, 2008 (7:00pm) Before talking about this weekend's matches we need to catch up with last weekend for the Young Athletes match at Broadbridge Heath. Results for our athletes can be found by clicking on here and, as the final results show, we finished fourth in this match - having been fifth in the 2 previous matches. The last match of the season for the Young Athletes is on Sunday, July 20th at Sutton. The mens' match turned out to be a bit of a disaster. We were in a joint match with a Southern Womens League match - but unfortunately we had not been supplied with the correct timetable. The timetable we had to use put most of the events somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes earlier than we expected - and the host club, Blackheath and Bromley, were dismissive of the complaints from the other competing teams. Athletes in the earlier events had inadequate time to warm up, and we lost two of our already depleted team to hamstring pulls in the first two track events. One bit of good luck was that Tom Gardner was originally going to be competing in UK Athletics Jumpsfest in Birmingham. A change in that timetable meant that Tom couldn't get there and so he came to Bromley where he won the high jump. Our only other first place went to the overworked James Crittell in the 400 metres hurdles. And not surprisingly we finished fourth in the match. If that all sounds too gloomy and negative then the presence, and positive attitude, of a number of under 17 athletes competing for the first time gave the afternoon a more positive aspect. In addition Colin Day also made his first appearance in the longer track races. The team will be back in action very soon on July 12th with the journey down to Bracknell. Our results are here. Against this story from Bromley the inconvenience suffered by the womens team at Croydon fades into insignificance. The evening before the match (about 15 hours before the match was due to start) team manager Jill Ely received a letter to say that the first event - the hammer - would start at 11.15 rather than 12.15. Our throwers got there as quickly as they could and just made it in time. Just as well they did - as Hannah McGarty won the event and Janice Watts threw over 18 metres for the first time to break her own veterans club record. Another pleasing feature was that all four of our long jumpers set personal bests - Laura McGarty 4.95, Tessa Martin 4.81, Sarah Rusling (still an under 13) 4.11 and Sophie McKay 3.92. Perhaps our next 5 metres lady long-jumper is not far away. And the senior triple jump as usual provided us with excellent points. Among the younger athletes there was a double first in the under 15 javelin with Autumn Bowden's 26.68 metres an excellent throw. With 7 junior athletes we were able to fill most of their events - but for the seniors we again had no track athletes running more than 200 metres. Full results aren't yet with us, and final match positions are also still awaited. Nevertheless here is what we currently know about our own athletes. This coming Sunday (July 6th) the Sussex under 13 championships (plus the Sussex veterans' championships) are being held at Withdean Stadium in Brighton. We will have a few athletes taking part and we might hope for a few medals.
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