The youngest section of the club had a bumper day at their Champs held at Withdean in conjunction with the U13 Championships. With a total of 24 athletes out of 76 competitors, we were assured a sea of red and black, and the performances ensured that we had a large contingent battling for medals.
The boys started on the grass with the Howler throw, where our Harrison George threw an incredible 38.16 (76 points) to lead after the first event with Sam Duncan on 70 points (35.34m). The girls were up on the plateau for the Standing Long Jump where both pools produced a longest jump by a Brighton & Hove athlete with Ruby Anning jumping 1.96 (57) and Blossom Campbell 1.99 (58 points) to the fore.
Next event was the 75m races and with 5 races for the girls and 4 for the boys, it took a bit of time to check for the fastest times but for the boys, Brighton’s Jamie Douglass had a great run to record 11.55, the 3rd fastest of the day (54 points) with lots of other gaining PB’s. For the girls, once again Ruby and Blossom lead the way with the fastest 2 times overall, Ruby with 11.45 (55) and Blossom 11.52 (54).
The third events were back on the field and the hard work the girls had done with the Howler recently produced Anya Dawson’s 23.53m (47) and Ella Matthews 23.06m (46) two of the best throws with 6 more Brighton girls throwing around the 20m line. The boys were jumping into the sand pits and the longest jump was 1.98m while seven Brighton boys jumped over 1.75m.
The last event back on the track was the 600m with a number of races for both events. The fastest girl overall was Ella Matthews with 2.05.49 (65 points) with other 2.10 performances from Anya Dawson (2.07), Lacey Fowler (2.08) and a storming finish from Blossom Campbell to record 2.09 against her previous best of 2.24. Overall this allowed Blossom to stay in 2nd place with 213 points against the winners 215 with Ella’s run moving her into the bronze position with 209 points. Behind this Anya was 4th (203), Ruby 6th (202) and Lacey 8th (192). Another 6 Brighton girls completed the competition with some great PB’s.
The boys were all chasing Tom Kimber of Crawley who was the runaway leader, but Brighton friends Josh Pay and Sam Duncan gave their best as Josh raced to a great 1.55.96 (74) pulling Sam to a PB of 1.59.75 (70). In the next heat, Tom Kimber ran the fastest time of 1.53.06 and he was chased by Calum Andrews who also recorded a PB of 1.59.33 (70) and Will Matthews, unfortunate to finish in 2.00.00(70). The final event had 3 Brighton boys just missing 2 min with Jamie Douglass (2.01), Michael Shaw (2.02) and Toyo Oloko (2.03). Overall, Tim Kimber finished with 261 points whilst Sam Duncan remained 2nd with a personal best score of 241. Other Brighton athletes over 200 points were Jamie Douglass with 232 points in 5th, Calum Andrews (216), Joshua Pay (215), Michael Shaw (207), Toyo Oloko (205), Harrison George (203) with 3 Brighton athletes on 199 points, Joe Noble, Ben Fairmann and Archie Rowles.
A fantastic day for all the athletes and their parents, some super performances for the youngsters before many go up to the Under 13 age group and some great experience for the year 4’s who next year will be battling for the medals.