Biting cold, driving rain, long delays on the track and a headwind in the home straight meant the conditions for the Brighton and Hove team in the first fixture of the season, were not ideal.
Despite this and many gaps, the team was never out of the top two and ultimately lost to Portsmouth, who had home advantage, by just 26 points.
Matt Smith won the Under 20 Men’s shot, was second in the discus and third in both the long jump and the ‘B’ javelin. In his first competition of the season Edan Cole won the ‘A’ javelin with 52.21m. Jake Payne was 3rd in the 400m and 4th on the 200m and Max Dowling took second place in the triple jump.
For the U20 Women Moyo Oloko and Evie Rossiter were second in the ‘A’ 100 and 200m. Aneira Farrar-Daniel did a treble winning the ‘B’ 100m/200m and shot put. Georgia Coleshill was third in the ‘A’ long and triple jump and Imogen Bakhtiari won the ‘B’ in both. Amy Gamblin came 3rd in the 1500m and fifth in the 400m.
Under 17’s Sam Wilkinson and Tomer Tarragano took the ‘A’ and ‘B’ victories in the 2000m S/C in personal best times of 4:54.1 and 5:01.3 respectively. Tom Eames and Max Brazier dominated the 800m with Tom taking victory with a two second PB of 2:00.4 and Max first in the ‘B’ race in 2:05.5.
On the field Louis Goffin won the triple jump with 12.18m. Ben Hawkes won the shot with a massive PB of nearly three metres with 15.07m and was second in the discus with 43.98m. Meanwhile Adam McConnell won the ‘B’ javelin.
For the Under 17 Women Amber Anning did a 200m/300m double in 25.6s and 39.7s with Hannah Williams second in the ‘B’ 200m and third in the javelin. Niamh Halloren ran a strong 1500m in the tough conditions for second place in the ‘A’ race and Amber Wright was also second in the ‘B’ race as well as taking victory in the ‘B’ pole vault.
Bethany Smith and Natasha Russell were second and first respectively in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ 300mH. Whilst Ruth Noble was second in the long jump and triple jump and Francesca Walmsely won the ‘B’ long jump. Eli Fitzgerald was runner up in both the shot and hammer, in the latter she threw a 1.5 metre PB of 43.15m.
Two exciting races closed the day. In the 4x100m U17W race Amber Anning brought the team from fourth to second on the final relay leg for valuable points and the U17W 4x 300m team fought a close battle with Southampton, losing out on victory by just two seconds.
Despite the overall second place, B&H failed to field athletes in many events and for the Under 20 Men had no competitors at all in the 100m, 200m (B), 800m, 1500m, 3000m, 110mH, 400mH, 2000m S/C, high jump, pole vault, hammer, 4×100 and 4x400m. The only consolation is that the other teams were in the same position.
Many of the athletes are about to take exams and brought their books with them to study in between races. Well done to you all and thanks to team managers Cindi Halloren (U17) and Serena Smith (U20).