National Indoor Junior Championships - Birmingham 27th Feb 2010
Three Polevaulters from the club participated in these championships and their long trip to the midlands was rewarded with a Bronze medal for MAX WOODWARD. His latest personal best (3.10 metres) gave him third place among the best under-fifteens in the country. JADE BREWSTER, in her first venture into this quality of competition, emerged with a personal best of 2.40 metres and a creditable seventh place. LUCY STICKLAND cleared 3.20 metres and 3.30 metres first time, but then failed to progress and finished equal eighth in the under-20's.
Final Sussex Cross-Country Leagues meeting and home Indoor Sprints and Hurdles meeting
Absence made our showing in the cross Country Leagues final meeting rather low-key, with incomplete teams. We did field a team in the under-13 boys event with ETHAN PALMER 9th (11.40 mins). WILL THOMAS 17th (12.28 mins) and his brother EUAN 27th (13.44 mins). The team was fifth on this occasion, and fifth overall. We were delighted subsequently to discover that Will Thomas was awarded a shield for running his lap in October's Goodwood relay's in the second fastest time! SAM TAYLOR finished 9th (19.13 mins) in the under-15 boys event, and was under-standably dismayed to find himself our only competitor. JASON WOODRIDGE (8th in 19.07 mins) and RYAN BOWYER (15th in 21.52 mins) performed with their usual keenness in the under-17 event and two over-50's, TIM ATKIN (52nd in 35.59 mins) and CHRIS LEE (74th in 38.45 mins) completed our male representation.
The girls enjoyed a little more success. EMMA EATWELL (27th in 15.55 mins) was our sole competitor in the under-13's; but it was very good to see CAMILLE COWAN battle through to third place in the under 15's, and to observe a relative newcomer, LAURA WEST, finish seventeenth. She is clearly going to be a real asset, while "Cammie" has made a real breakthrough this season. As an under-17 running in the senior race, ROSIE INMAN sprinted in the final run-in to finish 20th (21.27 mins) to be rewarded with third overall among this season's under-17's. Just behind her was ELOISE LEE (21st in 21.32 mins) with SHEENA BASSETT 41st 25.55 mins. This was one short of a complete team, but we were awarded sixth in team-competition, (not bad for a team promoted to the top flight only this season!)
Two days earlier, JAMES HEDGES showed distinct promise as an under 17 indoor sprinter, backed up by JAMES MACKMAN and hurdler KARL JOHNTON.
JACK and LUCY MILNTHORPE, BETHANY HICKMAN and JADE BREWSTER were busy in the junior sprints and hurdle-races throughout the evening. I enjoyed most the confrontations between our LAURA BROWN and LAUREN MILNTHORPE and Brightons Miss Arnold. Laura won emphatically, looking in good form for the Sussex "Indoors", with Lauren also finishing ahead of her rivals.
GIRL’S TEAM JUST MISS OUT IN EXCITING FINAL SPORTSHALL LEAGUE FIXTURE
In an exciting climax to this year’s Sportshall league both Blue Star teams were edged into second place by local rivals Crawley.
The Girls team were just beaten by a mere two points. There were however some excellent performances, Jade Brewster and Poppy Willis teamed up in the 4 lap races and both won, Jade running 51.1s to take the A string and Poppy 53.3s to take the B event. In the under 15 Girls Speed Bounce Lauren Milnthorpe scored 77 to win and in the Shot event Jess Veitch threw 8.25m to win the A string with Olivia Marles taking second in the B string with 6.27m. In the 2 lap race for Under 15s Cadie Willis ran well to win the B event in 23.3s.
In the Under 11 Speed Bounce event, Caroline Wirth scored 51 to take second place in the A with Ellie Austen scoring 48 to take the B string and in the Under 11 Standing Long Jump Emma Garry leapt 1.95m for second place in the A event with Jade Lindo also finishing second in the B string with 1.77m.
The relay events saw the Under 11 and Under 13 Girls teams win with the Under 15 Girls team just edged into second place.
The Boys match saw a strong Crawley team ahead from the start with the Blue Star Boys comfortably in second spot. Tom Killner-Brown as usual dominated the Speed Bounce event scoring a massive 82, ten more than his nearest challenger. Tom also competed in the Shot where his best throw of 8.76m was good enough to win the B event. Bonizwe McFadden threw 9.62m to take third place in the A event. In the Under 15 Boys 8 lap Paarlauf James Mackman and Karl Johnston teamed up and ran an excellent tactical race to win in1m30.7s. Earlier these two had both taken second places in the 4 lap races.
Jack Milnthorpe won the A string Under 13 Boys Speed Bounce with a score of 70, with team mate Thomas Tweedy taking second in the B event with a score of 64.
In the Under 11 Boys events there was a double win in the Standing Long Jump with Lewis Kirby leaping 2.10m to win the A string and Jacob Eloquin leaping 1.90m to take the B event. There was another double win in the 2 lap sprint with Oliver Broadley winning the A race in 23.8s and Sam Hughes taking the B race in 24.3s. The Under 11s ended the day on a high note by winning the Relay in convincing style running 48.7s.
Although disappointed to be just beaten in both the Boys and Girls leagues Team Manager Kim Milnthorpe was full of praise for the commitment and enthusiasm of all the youngsters and now look forward to seeing all of these athletes on the track in the summer.
Final match score:
Boys – 1 Crawley 300, 2 Horsham 255, 3 Chichester 234, 4 Brighton 194,
5 Haywards Heath 93, 6 Eastbourne 17
Girls – 1 Crawley 279, 2 Horsham 277, 3 Haywards Heath 218,
4 Brighton 157, 5 Chichester 138, 6 Eastbourne 10
Three Notable Achievemants
MAX WOODWARD, whose athletics talents are matched, or surpassed, by his ability at music, is making great strides as a pole-vaulter. Having won the Southern Counties under-15 championship, he has competed at Sutton and Windsor and taken his personal best leap up to 3 metres, decidedly above average for a boy of his age.
JADE BREWSTER, whom I have observed showing talent as a high-jumper, a hurdler and as a cross-country runner, has also "discovered" pole-vaulting. Her recent clearance of 2 metres 20 centimetres has provided her with eligibility for the national championships. I hope she will still consider herself an all-rounder with exciting Pentathlon and Heptathlon potential, but as a specialist she's likely to do very well.
BEN COLLIER, who sucessfully set his sights on the county schools under-15 Cross country Championships, has followed it up with 29th place in 16 minutes 52 seconds in a large field contesting the Southern Counties Championship. His journey to the Parliament Hill Fields course in London was fraught with obstructions and difficulty, so his performance was probably worth more. The week after, he ran for Sussex in the Southern Schools Inter-Counties race at Reigate; he was in the leading group throught, but slightly weakened in the last half-mile to finish an excellent sixth agianst good-quality opposition.
Sussex Schools Championships - Lancing Manor 23rd January 2010
These annual championships were a little low-key from our point of view unfortunately, but with one notable exception!
ROSIE INMAN (8th in 15.28 mins) put in her usual sterling performance in the Inter girls race, with GENEVIEVE POUNDS (14th in 16.33) and CAMILLE COWAN (returning from illness to record 16thin 16.37) for company. JADE BREWSTER was thirtieth in the junior girls race (14.22) with EMMA EATWELL in 52nd spot out of 70 finishers. We had no senior girls running, a far-cry from those recent days when Sarah Wigmore dominated this race.
Nor were there any senior boys competing, but in the Inter boys race, JASON WOOLDRIDGE came eleventh in 21.45 minutes, with BONIZWE MCFADDEN, again emphasising his versatility, in 16th place (22.04). Everyone in the club gathered round the course for the junior boys event to watch BEN COLLIERS attempt to win. He did so with a purposeful start, maintained through the middle of the race, and culminating in a very determined and fast finish. An excellent performance from an athlete who has consistently improved since he was spotted in schools athletics a couple of years ago; his time was as admirable 15.28 minutes and there were 81 runners behind him, including ETHAN PALMER (19th in 16.47) and WILL THOMAS (31st in 16.57). Mid-sussex schools, including Ben, also won the team competition.
BOYS AND GIRLS TEAM BOTH BEATEN, BUT STILL TOP THE LEAGUE
At the latest Sussex Sportshall league event held last Sunday at Tanbridge House School, the Blue Star teams were beaten for the first time this season. The Boys team were pushed into second place by a strong Crawley team, scoring 260 points to the winners 284 points. In the Girls match the team’s score of 250 points saw them just edged into third place by Crawley (276 points) and Haywards Heath (258 points).
There were several good performances. In the Under 15 Boys James Mackman scored a double victory, firstly winning the Standing Long Jump with a leap of 2.48m and then taking the 4 lap race in 46.0s, where Karl Johnston took the B event in 45.6s. These two teamed up in the 8 lap Paarlauf and had a convincing victory in 1m31.6s.
Also in the under 15 Boys events, Tom Killner-Brown won the Speed Bounce with a score of 78, and then took victory in the B Shot with a putt of 8.77m.
In the Under 13 Boys events Jack Milnthorpe and Thomas Tweedy took second places in the Speed Bounce, with scores of 68 and 62 respectively. In the Standing Long Jump, George Palmer leapt 2.14m to take second place in the A string, with Thomas Tweedy jumping 2.08m for second in the B event.
Lewis Kirby again dominated the Under 11 Standing Long Jump with a leap of 2.09m, and there was a double victory in the Speed Bounce, with Tom Mackman and Alex Widdowson both scoring 48 to win both A and B events. In the 2 lap race Oliver Broadley, although just being edged into second place, recorded the same time as the winner, 23.3s which is a new league record.
In the Girls match, Jade Brewster took second place in the Under 15 Speed Bounce with a score of 74. In the Under 13s Emily Cox ran well to win the 2 Lap race in 24.0s with Ellie Tangorpho taking second place in the B race with 24.7s. Emily then teamed up with Molly Adams in the Standing Long Jump, where she won the B event with a jump of 1.97m with Molly taking second place in the A event with a leap of 2.15m. Also in this age group Erin Marshall took second place in the Speed Bounce with a score of 74 and Lucy Milnthorpe won the B event with a score of 68. The 6 lap races saw the Club gain two valuable second places, with Holly Schofield running 85.7s in the A race and Sophie Dawson 87.2s in the B race.
In the Under 11 Speed Bounce, Caroline Wirth scored 51 to take third place in the A event and Lucy Humphries scored 48 to win the B event.
The Under 13 Girls and Under 11 Girls relay teams both had good wins in their respective events.
Despite being beaten the Club is still leading in both the Boys and Girls leagues, with the final meeting being held at Tanbridge House School on 7th February.
Cross Country and Indoor track & field 16th Jan 2010
The cross counntry season has been somewhat disrupted by the bad weather and consequent illness. The third leg of the Sussex Leagues went ahead at Bexhill a week later than originally intended, and will be remembered as "the race through the mud". Our under-13's found it daunting; NICOLE ALLAN was 26th (14.53 mins) and SOPHIE DAVISON 38th (16.22 mins) in the girls, and ETHAN PALMER who was 12TH (12.11 minutes) WILL THOMAS 17th (12.33 mins); EUAN THOMAS 25th (13.29 mins) and DANIEL PIGEON 29th (14.13 mins) in the boys. The four boys comprised a team which finished 6th. The under-15 boys fared better, due to BEN COLLIER (an excellent 4th in 16.35 mins); BONIZWE MCFADDEN (11th in 17.44 mins) and SAM TAYLOR (13th in 18.05 mins). This produced a team second-place which meant we are 4th overall for the season so far, with a good chance of securing 3rd place medals after the final round. Ben's prospects in the forthcoming schools races, with more favourable age-groupings, also look very promising. JASON WOOLDRIDGE managed a creditable tenth (20.06 mins) in the under-17 men's race.
We had three athletes in the U17, junior and senior women's race, insufficient for a team score, but, with ELSPETH TURNER (in training for the London Marathon, but ploughing through the mud in undaunted fashion) 8th in 21.36 minutes; ROSIE INMAN 21st in 22.55 mins and ELOISE LEE 33rd in 23.41 mins, we made a brave showing. Rosie's performance additionally brought her third place in the under-17 section.
The club's track and field athletes stirred after their winter hibernation, and several descended on Lee Valley for indoor competition. MAX WOODWARD'S clearance of 2.70 metres brought him the Southern Counties under-15 Pole Vault title - magnificent! ALEX BEST made the semi-final of the under-17 200 metres (24.92 secs in his heat; 25.01 in the semi-final). NATALIE BURGESS was a semi-finalist in the 60 Metres Hurdles (heat - 9.68; semi - 9.81). LAURA BROWN did 9.72 secs in her 60m H race, while GORM YOUNG did 7.93 in his.
MATT BAKER had already had an outing at Windsor (indoors, of course!) doing both horizontal jumps, although at Lee Valley his up-to-form 12.69 metres only secured him 11th place in the Triple jump.
Finally, LUCY STICKLAND, making a low-key start to a year dominated by exams, nevertheless cleared 3.40 metres for second place in the under 20's pole Vault, with CHLOE LOADER claiming equal-seventh with her best vault of 2.50 metres.
Sussex Cross Country Championships - Stanmer Park 2nd Jan 2010
The club was hit by illness, injury and holidays, but the day produced some reasons to be cheerful. Our three U13 girls (NICOLE ALLAN 19th in 16.03mins; JADE BREWSTER 23rd in 16.40 mins and EMMA EATWELL 25th in 16.47 mins.) brought us home in 7th place. LAURA WEST finished 25th in 26.36 mins as an under-15 and JOHANNA SPANNAGL, despite unexpected competition for a while, took the under-17 race in 21.16 mins. sadly, our other talented under-17's had fallen ill. It was unfortunate that we only had three senior ladies, as four were needed for a team score. LOUISE SPRINGTHORPE finished 15th (30.14 mins); ELOISE LEE 35th (33.24 mins) and SHEENA BASSETT 51st (35.48 mins) in a strong field.
On the male side, the under-13 boys finished in fourth place. WILLIAM THOMAS once again had an excellent run to finish 8th (13.07 mins) and he was well supported by ETHAN PALMER (14th in 13.49 mins); EUAN THOMAS (23rd in 14.31 mins); DANIEL PIGEON (24th in 14.36 mins) and THOMAS HOULT (28th in 15.17 mins).The under-15's also finished fourth, boosted by a superb effort from BEN COLLIER giving away height and age to the medallists, he came fourth in 18.33 minutes. ALEX BEST, usually considered a sprinter, finished 21st, closely followed by ADRIAN FAULTY. We also had an under-17 team in sixth place (TROY SAUNDERS - 16th in 21.36 mins; RYAN BOWYER - 22nd in 22.47 mins and JASON WOOLDRIDGE - 32.08 minutes. Only one medal, but some excellent junior performances in the intense cold.
We again fell one short of a scoring quartet in the senior men's race JONATHON RANDLE (how nice to see him competing again in a Blue Star Harriers vest!) finished 37th in exactly fifty minutes; ANDY DUNSTAN 52nd in 53.07 mins and LAURIE HOWICK 98th in 65.02 mins.
Sportshall League – Tanbridge House School 13th December Both Teams Win, with Boys team just prevailing by 1 point League Records for Kirby and Broadley
In the latest Sportshall league held at Tanbridge House School the Blue Stars continued their successful start with wins in both the Boys and Girls events. Both matches were extremely close and it was only in the final event of the day, the Under11 Boys Standing Long Jump where Lewis Kirby won the A string with a league record equalling jump of 2.12m, and he was supported by Izak Varey who took second spot in the B event. These results meant that the Club overtook the long time leaders Crawley to win by a solitary point, scoring 276 points to their rivals 275 points.
Elsewhere in the Boys events, newcomer Oliver Broadley made a tremendous debut for the Club, winning the Under 11 Boys 2 lap race in a new league record time of 23.4s, and he was supported by Adam Jackson, who took second spot in the B race in 24.9s. Also in the Under 11 events, Tom Mackman took second place in the A Speed Bounce with a score of 51, one more than his team mate Alex Widdowson who won the B event.
In the Under 15 Boys events James Mackman and Max Woodward teamed up in the Standing Triple Jump and both recorded wins, James leapt 6.86m on his last attempt to win the A string and Max leapt 6.66m to win the B event. In the Under 15 Speed Bounce, in an event he has dominated in recent years, Tom Killner-Brown won with a score of 81, and Karl Johnson won the B 4 lap race in 46.9s.
The Under 13 Boys 2 lap races saw Kyran Penney and George Palmer both finish second in 22.6s and 23.5s respectively. George then teamed up with Thomas Tweedy in the Standing Triple Jump and both gained valuable second place points with leaps of 6.42m and 6.21m.
In the relay events both the Under 15 and under 11Boys won their respective races, with the Under 11s just edging out the Crawley team and the Under 13 team took second place.
The Girls team were also involved in a tight match, but ended up winning by 16 points from their closest rivals, again the team from Crawley, scoring 277 points.
In the Under 13 Girls, Molly Adams and Hannah Clark won A and B events in the Standing Triple Jump, jumping 6.63m and 5.74m respectively. Hannah, started the day off well by winning the first event the 2 lap race in 24.0s, and Emily Cox took the B string in 24.1s. Elsewhere in the Under 13 events, Jade Brewster finished second in the 4 lap race in 51.9, and Lucy Milnthorpe take second place in the B Vertical Jump with a leap of 42cm.
The Under 15s scored several second places, with Lauren Milnthorpe in the 4 lap race and Speed Bounce, Olivia Marles in the 2 lap race and the B string Shot Putt, and Amie Gatland in the Vertical Jump and B string Standing Triple Jump.
The Under 11s also contributed to the overall score with Caroline Wirth winning the Speed Bounce with a score of 53 with Lucy Humphries taking second place in the B event. Lucy also won the B 2 lap sprint and B Standing Long Jump. Emma Garry took second place in the A Standing Long Jump.
In the 8 lap Paarlauf the Under 15 team of Lauren Milnthorpe and Sophie Knight stormed to victory in 1m39.2s, and the both the Under 13 and Under 11 relay teams gained valuable wins with the Under 15 team taking second.
This was an excellent performance from both teams and they now both lead their respective leagues.
Sussex "Masters" Cross-Contry Championships - December 09
The club only had one lady competing in these veterans championships held at Denne park. SHEENA BASSETT ran well in the over-45 race, finishing seventh in 33 minutes 22 seconds. ELSPETH TURNER, who would probably have done well, was obliged to work (on behalf of athletics!)
There were more men competitors, with ANDY DUNSTAN achieving 26th in the over-40 race in a time of 41 minutes 25 seconds, while among the over-60's BILL CRAWLEY finished 19th with a time of 52 minutes 50 seconds. In the over-50's race we even closed in a team, finishing seventh with 61 points. TIM ATKIN was a very praiseworthy thirteenth (43.41 mins) while CHRIS LEE was Six places behind in 19th (46.35 mins) and LAURIE HOWICK 29th (50.17 mins)
The club as a whole undertook the organisation of the race, winning general approval, even from the landowner who came along as an enthusiastic spectator.
Sussex Cross Country League 2 at Plumpton College- 28th November 09
Amazingly, during a weeks-long wet spell, producing flood conditions virtually everywhere, these races were held in cold but dry weather, and produced excellent racing. Our club was hit hard by the prevalent flu with LOUISE HOYTE, JOHANNA and BERNI SPANNAGL and BEN COLLIER all absent, as was ELSPETH TURNER who could not juggle the air-flight times on her return from holiday in Spain in order to take part.
Our three under-13 girls (NICOLE ALLAN - 21st; JADE BREWSTER - 23rd; EMMA EATWELL - 25th) brought us home in eighth place to retain an overall sixth position. CAMILLE COWAN, whose running has impressed me greatly this autumn, was fourth in the under-15 race, with MAISIE BOAST 17th. The team retained its fourth place.
We are strongest in the under-17 girls age-group, where ROSIE INMAN was 4th and GENEVIEVE POUNDS 6th in Johanna's absence. However, they ran as seniors and supplemented the efforts of ELOISE LEE (17th) and SHEENA BASSETT (52nd) to limit the damage of key absentees and maintain fourth position overall - fairly good as we were only promoted last season!
Our six under-13 boys made up two teams with ETHAN PALMER (8th); WILLIAM THOMAS (12th) and DAN PIGEON (20th) keeping us in touch with the medal positions in fourth place. Our other runners were EUAN THOMAS. JACK MILNTHORPE and HUGO MARTIN.
SAM TAYLOR was, sadly, our only under-15 representative but managed tenth place, while RYAN BOWYER, our solitary under-17, achieved 22nd.
Four undaunted "veterans" ran in the senior men's race and finished 50th (ANDY DUNSTAN), 87th (TIM ATKIN), 127th (LAURIE HOWICK) and 129th (BILL CRAWLEY). This praise worthy effort brought us home in seventh place in Division 3, thus retaining our overall 7th place.
There is plenty to go for in all age groups in the remaining two meetings, and plenty of evidence that we'll rise spectacularly.
HORSHAM BLUE STAR – SPORTSHALL LEAGUE
The Blue Stars started their defence of both the Girls and Boys titles in the Sussex Sportshall League, last Sunday at Tanbridge House School, in fine fashion. The Girls team always dominated their match scoring 275 points to their nearest rival Crawley who scored 255 points. The Boys match was much closer and the Crawley team led the match for most of the afternoon, before successes in the relays at the end of the match tipped the balance in Blue Star’s favour who eventually ran out the winners scoring 267 points to Crawley’s 259 points.
There were many outstanding performances, with Tom Killner-Brown dominating the under 15 Boys Speed Bounce with a score of 83, in the same event Lauren Milnthorpe scored 79 to win the Under 15 Girls. Also in the Under 15 Boys James Mackman leapt an impressive 2.44m to win the Standing Long Jump and together with Bonziwe McFadden they won both A & B events in the 4 lap race running 45.5s and 46.5s respectively. Hannah Clark, competing up an age group, had two B string wins in the Under Girls, firstly taking the Shot with 6.17m and then the running 23.7s to take the 2 lap race.
The Under 13 Girls Speed bounce produced another double first with Erin Marshall scoring 75 to win the A event and Florence Webb with 74 took the B event, and Alex Basson and Thomas Tweedy won A and B Speed Bounce in the Under 13 Boys scoring 70 and 67 respectively. Elsewhere in the U13 Girls age group there were wins in the B events for Molly Adams in the 6 lap race, Emily Cox in the 2 lap race and Standing Long Jump and Lucy Milnthorpe in the 4 lap race. In the Under 13 Boys, Thomas Tweedy won the B Vertical Jump, George Palmer the 2 lap race and Kyran Penny the 4 lap race.
In the Under 11 age group, where several of the team were having their first taste of competition, there were some excellent performances. Emma Garry won the A string Standing Long Jump with an outstanding leap of 2.01m with Lucy Humphries taking the B event with 1.74m. Emma also won the B 2 lap race in 24.9s, in the Under 11 Boys Standing Long Jump there was another double win with Lewis Kirby leaping 2.00m to win the A event and team mate Jacob Eloquin taking the B event with a leap of 1.90m. In the Under 11 Boys 2 lap Oliver Broadley ran well to just edge out his nearest rival, winning in 23.9s.
As usual the meeting ended with the series of relay events, and both Under 11 Boys and Girls 4 x 1 lap teams won in 50.5s and 52.2s respectively. There were also wins in the Under 13 Girls 4 x 2 lap (1.37.0s) and Under 15 Boys 4 x 2 lap (1.27.9s).
This was an encouraging start for both teams and they look forward to the next fixture on the 13th December again at Tanbridge House School.
Sussex Cross Country League 1 at Goodwood - 24th October 09
There was an eerie quality about the racing at Goodwood, with damp figures emerging from dense mist, led in the early races by a car with fog and head-lights providing indication of the course. The fog lifted in time for the senior races but the under-13 girls (who finished eighth - NICOLE ALLAN 18th 13.31 mins; JADE BREWSTER 19th 13.33; SOPHIE DAWSON 24th 13.59.), the under-13 boys (commendably fifth - ETHAN PALMER 12th 12.21; JACK MILNTHORPE 15th 12.42 and DAN PIGEON 18th 13.32.) and the under-15 boys (an even better third place) contended with dreadful conditions. BEN COLLIER was 5th in 15.15 mins; SAM TAYLOR 10th in 16.08 and BERNI SPANNAGL 14th in 16.21 totalling 29 points, all, I think, are young in this age-group. We had incomplete teams in the under-15 girls race, but CAMILLE COWAN had a very promising run (12TH In 17.34) with MAISIE BOAST achieving 22nd place with 20.32, and also in the under-17 boys race (JASON WOODRIDGE 11th in 17.49 and RYAN BOWYER 22nd in 20.36).
We shone (if such a word is appropriate on such a murky day!) in the under-17 girls, though it was in the cause of the senior womens team. JOHANNA SPANNGL won in 17.40 minutes, beating many seasoned athletes; ROSIE INMAN (8th in 21 minutes) and GENEVIEVE POUNDS (9th in 21.16) would, as far as I could work it out, have secured first place in the team event. As it was, Johanna and Rosie teamed up with ELSPETH TURNER (13th in 19.53) and ELOISE LEE (15th in 20.01 minutes) to give an admirable second place in the senior race. AMICIA LEE (46th in 22.36) and SHEENA BASSETT (51st in 23.12) also ran and would have been our senior scorers, if we'd contested the under-17 race. Johanna's performance on a course where she always seems to do well, was worth the trip to Goodwood, I heard someone from another club comment "Pure Class", and no-one disagreed.
The senior men's team were all veterans or "masters" ANDY DUNSTON was 76th in 31.29 minutes; TIM ATKIN 96th in 32.49; CHRIS LEE 108th 34.15 and BILL CRAWLEY 140th in 40.34. We were 12th in the lowly third Divison, and 13th in the Vets competition with 137 ponts.
Let us hope for afternoons less foggy and soggy for the rest of the season!
HORSHAM BLUE STAR – TOM PINK RELAYS
The Blue Star youngsters travelled to Lee Valley Indoor Arena for the Tom Pink Relays, a series of Sportshall type of events for the Under11 and Under 13 age groups.
Competing against Clubs from all over the South East the Club athletes put up some excellent performances and many of the team came away with awards. In the Under 13 Girls age group the 3 x 500m relay team of Holly Scofield, Lucy Milnthorpe and Jade Brewster put up a tremendous performance, leading for much of the race they were just edged out in a final sprint for the line to take second place. In the same age group the 1500m relay team of Lucy Milnthorpe, Jade Brewster, Molly Adams and Bethany Hickman took the bronze awards. Individually Molly Adams picked up two awards, firstly taking second place in the Standing Triple Jump with a leap of 6.30m and then finishing third in the Standing Long Jump with 2.00m. Jade Brewster took third in the Shot with a putt of 6.79m.
The Under 13 Boys team 3 x 500m team of Marcus Ramage, Jack Milnthorpe and Gregor Ramage, were not to be out done by the Girls and ran well to finish in an excellent 3rd place. Individually there were second places for Kyran Penny, who leapt 2.16m for second place in the Standing Long Jump, and Ryan Slater who alos took second place in the Weight for Height competition.
The Under 11 team also performed well, with many of the team having their first taste of competition. Newcomer Jacob Eloquin produced the Club’s only win of the day with victory in the Soft Javelin event with a throw of 15.50m. Tom Mackman took a third place in the Highland Steps event with a total of 59 steps. Emma Garry in the Under 11 Girls Standing Triple Jump took 2nd place with a distance of 5.58m. Two fo the teams reached their relay finals. In the Continuous Relay the team of Ellie Austen, Emma Garry, Melanie Railton, Lucy Humphreys and Nicole Taylor took fifth place and in the Up and Over Relay the team of Sara Dedman, Tabitha Lee, Ellie Austen and Nicole Taylor also finished fifth. The Team Manager Kim Milnthorpe named her athletes of the match, being Tom Mackman, Kyran Penny, Emma Garry and Molly Adams.
The athletes enjoyed their first involvement in this event and the club hopes that it will be invited again next year.
Keith May
01444 831430
The Goodwood Relay's - 3rd October 2009
The club had mixed success in the Sussex Cross-Country relays. ETHAN PALMER and DANIEL PIGEON set up WILLIAM THOMAS with a chance of medals in the under-13 boys race and, but, for an untimely asthma attack, he would have succeeded. As it was, his 9 mins 45 secs (second fastest in this age-group) brought them home in fourth place. A mixed team of two girls (LUCY MILNTHORPE and NICOLE ALLEN) and a boy (lucy's brother, Jack) also ran creditably.
We had high hopes for the under-15 boys team, and, sure enough, BEN COLLIER (9 mins 38 secs), SAM TAYLOR (10:05) and BERNI SPANNAGL (10:15) had no problems securing second place behind Brighton. It was good to see Berni back in action after a long lay-off, and it is very much to be hoped that Ben and Sam will be able to reconcile their running commitments with their respective codes of football during the season.
The other big hope was with the senior ladies A team. ELSPETH TURNER was promoted at last minute to run the opening lap, and splendidly finished alongside the race leader from Phoenix AC. in 15 mins 9 secs. This sent JOHANNA SPANNAGL off with no-one to catch up, and she established a big lead, which ELOISE LEE was almost able to preserve, until passed by the Phoenix runners close to home. This gave the team the Silver medals with Johanna running the fastest lap overall, and Elspeth the second fastest veteran lady's time behind the illustrious Caroline Horne. (I cant get used to reffering to "Masters Women" or whatever!) A team comprising ROSIE INMAN, AMICIA LEE and SHEENA BASSETT finished in eighth place, with Rosie's time of 16 mins 2 secs the third fastest in the under-17 category.
Gratifyingly there was a senior men's team in the four-lap race with two under-17's RYAN BOWYER and TROY SAUNDERS and two "masters", BILL KNIGHT and CHRIS LEE combining to finish 9th.
Allocation of medals for fastest laps across the various age-groups was, to me, mystifyingly complicated, but clearly we had some major achievers during the afternoon. It was a good beginning to the winter season.
Combined Events Activity
Unaccountably I missed two club members who performed creditably in the Sussex Combined Events competition. LUCY STICKLAND, unusually without a vaulting pole in her hands all day, came fifth in the under-17 Heptathlon with 3338 points from a consistent series of performances. BILL KNIGHT took the third place medal in the over-45's event with a 2143 total. My apologies for omitting two such good performances.
HELEN MORTON, further afield, helped Scotland defeat England in a combined events match, and presumably did her Commonwealth Games prospects no harm at all. She finished in a extremely creditable 6th place.
Finally, in a memorable weekend for Sussex Combined Eventing, MATT BAKER was one of the county team which retained the E.S.A.A. Senior Boys Championship. This year's team were an entirely new trio from last year's winners and Matt's 17th place, on his debut at this level, was highly commendable. Over forty athletes took part and Matt's scores were 11.96 (100m.) - 5.77 (L.J.) - 9.07 (Shot) - 1.81 (H.J.) - 53.28 (400m.) on the first day, followed by 17.17 (110mH.) - 25.53 (Discus) - 3.01 (P.V.) - 31.65 (jav.) and 4.46.61 (1500m) for 5236 points. The Sussex senior girls also became national champions (but without any Blue Star assistance!)
Sussex Combined Events Championships - Broadbridge Heath 12/13th Sept 09
Three members of the MILNTHORPE family, JADE BREWSTER and NATALIE BURGESS represented the club in these championships with varying success. Both JACK and LUCY MILNTHORPE currently lack the physical stature to take on some of their stronger contemporaries, but Lucy looked stylish over the hurdles, finishing 9th overall (1643 points) with Jack a place below in the under-13 boys competition (830 points). LAUREN too shone as a hurdler and tackled the 800 metres with determination to finish with the Bronze medal (2245 points) in the under-15 girls event behind two Chichester girls. Jade proceeded consistantly through her five events among the under-13 girls to finish fifth (1949 points)
Natalies Heptathlon reminded me of one by Kelly Sotherton - a reasonable first day, followed by a sound long jump. Then she looked as if her javelin-throws might have deflated all her efforts, but she ran very gamely indeed (almost "to a standstill", in fact!) in the 800 metres (2 mins 34.13 secs) to finish in a rightly deserved second place.
Results in detail are on the Sussex Website.
Under-Thirteen Inter-Clubs Final
On Sunday, September 6th, our under-13 athletes excelled themselves by finishing a highly respectable third in the annual "Grand Final" of the junior athletics season. Earlier in the year, we had had no qualifiers for the Sussex team in the inter-county under 13's match at Kingston, and medals in the county's individual championships were much scarcer than usual, but, as a club team, this group of athletes can be relied upon to make an impact. The league final was inaugurated in 1992 and this years winners, Crawley A.C. (with 402 points), were winning it for the fourth time.Yet Horsham had beaten them earlier to become West Sussex champions by a single point. East Sussex winners, Brighton and Hove A.C. (387.5 points) were second, with Horsham third, scoring 369 points. Altogether ten clubs took part with fully representative teams who all took part in an Olympic-style march past!
The stars of the Horsham ream were the girls field-event athletes with HANNAH CLARK winning the Discus, ANNIE PIPER the javelin and MOLLY ADAMS the long jump. Molly also won the B-string Discus and the club had three other "B string" winners (NICOLE ALLEN, HOLLY SCHOFIELD and EMILY COX) as well as winning the B-string relay. Both the boys and girls teams fully covered every event, and we were boosted by a string of second places - WILLIAM TURNER (600 metres), THOMAS TWEEDY (high jump), JACK MILNTHORPE (B string javelin) and KYRAN PENNY (B string 150 metres). Lots of other athletes played their part and were very competitive in earning valuable points. Additionally, we had eleven surplus competitors in the non-scoring events. Altogether an excellent afternoon for us, and for the other clubs present.
Southern Women's League 5th September at Crawley.
In the last league fixture of the season, a very depleted Ladies team finished third with a respectable 120 points behind Chelmsford (180) and Radley (130), and narrowly ahead of Thurrock Harriers (113). All the athletes must have been tired girls by the end of a long afternoon, though there were some excellent efforts, especially from two athletes, now bound for university. KATE KAYE won the senior 800 metres (2.34.4 mins) and 1500 metres (5.07.0), the latter in collaboration with her mother, who was second in the B race (6.34.7). Indifatigably, Kate also did the 3000 metres, the high hurdles and the relay! Meanwhile REBECCA JENNINGS ran both sprints, the 100 metres hurdles and the relay, while long-jumping to victory in the "B" competition. Others who were asked to take on a multilicity of tasks were an in-form NATALIE BURGESS, LAUREN MILNTHORPE, LAURA BROWN, ZOE PARSONS, EMILY EASTLAND, AMICIA LEE, CADIE WILLIS, CHLOE CANNON, OLIVIA MARPLES, CAITLIN WARD and ROSIE INMAN (another B-race winner). aLL performed most commendably. MELISSA KILNER-BROWN added 100 metre sprinting to her all-round throwing efforts. CAMILLE COWAN and TEGHAN PAGE may well, in years to come, be able to say they took on Chelmsford's remarkable Jessica Judd in a competitive race, just as people these days recall racing against a youthful Paula Radcliffe or Kelly Holmes. Unusually, HANNAH JAMES encountered two good discus opponents in prime form, and our normally reliable U15 relay team finished second, only to be disqualified! All this exhausting activity brought us an improvement of one place upto 9th in the league. Congratulations to all who made the trip to K2.
NORTH WEST COMBINED EVENTS MEETING IN MANCHESTER
Among a number of fine performances by Sussex athletes at this meeting, the fourth place gained by HELEN MORTON from our club was particularly meritorious. On day one, in succession she ran the hurdles in 15.03 secs, high jumped 1.61 metres, put the shot 9.12 metres and sprinted the 200 metres in 26.26 secs. She followed this up on day two by Long jumping 4.87 metres, throwing the javelin 33.87 metres and then managing a time of 2 mins 25.12 secs for the 800 metres. This gave her a total of 4662 points to fall just short of a medal in the senior women's competition.
Recent Athletics Activity
Despite the holidays the club has been active collectively and individually. We finished a sound third in our final Southern Mens league match. The most satisfying aspect of this season is that the team can now draw on more participants, despite the departure of our German members. A number of athletes took part with success in the under-17 county match at Crawley and three leading juniors travelled to Bedford for the national under-17 championships DAVID PATEY was rewarded with a personal best of 50.3 secs for 400 metres, while LUCY STICKLAND lost out on countback, having cleared the same height (3.50 metres) as the second and third-placed medallists. HOLLY WEBB was twelfth in the javelin competition.
We won our final under-13 match before the grand final in exciting fashion with a late-night (it seemed!) high jump clearance of 1.35m by JADE BREWSTER which gave us a one-point victory. Peformances by BETHANY HICKMAN, HANNAH CLARK, THOMAS TWEEDY, JAKE STOREY, MARCUS RAMAGE, BYRON CLARK, RYAN SLATER and the relay teams showed great promise, but everyone, particularly the B-string competitors, also generated additional points.
A few athletes visited Withdean for the under-15's final match, where TEGHAN PAGE'S 1500 metres victory gave us particular delight, and there were also some Blue Stars participating in the Brighton Evening Open meeting; ALEX ROSE was another 400 metre runner to lower his personal best substantially, BETHANY HICKMAN made a brave effort to win a 'Minithon' medal, while her brother was among a large group of Pole Vaulters.
Our own Open Meeting in blistering heat was extremely well supported by visiting clubs. Indeed, the numbers were too great for really easy management. Nevertheless, as far as I could tell, everyone went home happy that they had been involved.
Southern Womens League at Guildford 25-07-09
Saturday's Southern Women's league match produced a conflict of emotions; unbounded admiration for the almost self-sacrificial willingness and efforts of the athletes who turned up, and frustration and regret that once again we could not turn out a side which reflected the potential strengh of our club. We finished an uncertain third, only just beating Newquay and Par, who had, after all, to travel more than ten times as fas we did. With a full team we would have been neck-and-neck with Guilford and Basildon.
HANNAH JAMES thirty-three metres plus discus throw was our most obvious highlight, but it was good to see the likes of CATRIONA DUNLOP and SARAH WIGMORE making really classy competition. Everyone did really well and we only dropped one league place in a tough level of competition. And surely that's what we're after - a tough level of contribution; we will be lucky to retain our present status!
Tremendous Performance by Joe
Joe Kent took a tremendous fourth placing in the High Jump in the European Youth Olympics held in Tampere , Finland on 23rd July. Having qualified for the final with one clearance at 1.99m, Joe then improved his personal best, in the Final, to 2.11m to be just edged out of the medals.
Young Athletes League 3 at Carlshalton
The clubs youngsters were seen to best possible advantage in this final match in which we finished second (out of eight clubs) 109 points behind all-powerful Worthing 671, but twenty-eight ahead of Crawley's strong team. There was an excellent turn-out (despite some unexpected and regrettable absentees) and a readiness to fill almost every slot in the programme by tackling unfamiliar events. Everyone, but notably our sprinters, hurdlers, javelin throwers and middle distance runners in all age groups seemed to be on top form, helping us to stack up an eventual points total of 562. My only regret was that no interim scores were given out throughout the afternoon, so we only had a slight inkling of how well we were doing.
One whose absence was entirely justified was LUCY STICKLAND, excelling at schools international level with the closest possible second place in the Pole Vault. The windy conditions restricted her to 3.45 metres.
Southern Men's League 3s at Crawley 11th July 09
A larger than usual Horsham team had a good result on Saturday, when the disqualification of Tunbridge Wells in the final 4 x 400m event gave us second place behind Bracknell AC. This was sadly the last appearance of our two German guests, who have served us so well. EMMANUEL REINECKE earned points in the 'B' 1500 metres and Steeplechase, while SEBASTIAN SCHMIDT took second place in the 100 metres (11.8 secs) and 110 metres hurdles (16.7 secs), also winning the 'B' javelin and placing third in the 'A' Long jump and the 4 x 100 metres relay. It was excellent to see JOE WALLER throwing the javelin again after well over a year, even if his winning throw (48 metres) was a cautious one! Elsewhere he was his usual bouyant self, competing in the shot, discus, high jump and triple jump - an effort matched by MATT BAKER, who won the 'A' Pole Vault (2.80 metres), the 'A' High jump (1.75 metres) and the 'B' triple jump (12.19 metres). He also figured heroically in the dramatic 4 x 400 metres relay and individual 400 metres event. DAVID STEPHENS doesn't have to do so much these days, but still performed with distiction in five individual events and the relays! NEIL TOMS, GEORGE O'SHEA, TIM ATKIN, BILL KNIGHT and two new middle-distance men - R. FLYNN and A.SMITH - saw to it that we covered every event, with the result that we were rewarded with 90 points, behind Bracknell's 105 and ahead of Tunbridge Wells - Langton's 87.5 and a reinforced Holland Sports outfit who scored 72.5. Despite the drizzle, it was a good day.
CLUBMARK - Improving Your Club
On Friday Evening, the Club was duly presented with its Club-Mark Accreditation at the Sussex Sports awards. This had been obtained because of the painstaking work of IAN CRIBB and the Secretary MICHAEL CARRINGTON.
Newsletter - October 2009
Newsletter - February 2009
Awards presentation evening 2009
Pictures
Awards presentation evening 2007
pictures and award winners