Chichester athletes head for great indoors - and get off to flyer

Star of the afternoon was St Philip Howard schoolboy Thomas Ackerman, who showed a clean pair of heels to his rivals in the four-lap under-15 race, coming close to the club record in the process.

He then won the vertical jump and with Jamie Johnson, a guest competitor, set the fastest time in the paarlauf relay.

For the under-13s, the sprint pairing of Charlie Pereira and James Austin showed good form while Pereira teamed up with Casey Keates in the four-lap.

Then Keates showed his excellent current fitness by running good times with Harry Lyne in the six-lap after a short recovery.

Enric Jonco-Ritchie was a useful field competitor and enabled the other three to turn in a good relay performance.

For the girls, multi-talented Nathalie Godden gained three second places in standing long jump and shot putt, while Eleanor Overton and Georgie Osborn tackled the sprints and Alex Fryday put in a fast four-lap time.

Jess Breach was another who proved her all-round fitness with two second places in the two-lap sprint and the six-lap later in the programme.

She was joined by Zoe Nunn in the sprint and Zoe Barnett in the six-lap with Beth Rogers and Barnett in the four-lap, with all four girls on fine track form.

Near-maximum points were gained by Nunn and Sophie Brown in the speed bounce while good points were gained by Amy Brown and Rhiannon Phelps in both vertical jump and shot.

Meanwhile the new batch of under-11s were out in force and showing promise for the future.

Mia Selman and Alisa White took on the scoring duties for the girls’ sprints while Daniel Jonco-Ritchie and Alex Austin were in action for the boys.

Reserves were Brodie Keates, Callum Strowger, Michael Ackerman, Barry Godden and the youngest of the group, Archie Strowger.

With the next match on Sunday, February 12, again at the Tanbridge House School near Horsham, Chichester are hoping to add to their talent to make an even more impressive showing.

Chichester Runners were well-represented in two of the south’s most prestigious road races at the weekend.

While the Brighton 10k had the larger field of the two, most of the Chichester contingent decided to travel to Gosport for their popular half-marathon, which attracted more than 1,500 competitors.

Not surprisingly James Baker led the squad home in a fine time of 68min 48sec in third place, once again having to give ground to an in-form Winchester athlete, Tom Payn, whose sub-66min clocking was one of the fastest ever seen on the south coast.

Behind Baker was top club over-50 veteran Dave Dorning who finished a fine 99th overall and ninth in his category with a 1hr 23min 22sec clocking while Lee Neumann was next in 1.28.10 for 187th - 27th in the over-40 age group.

Two of Chichester’s promising under-20s had their first taste of the distance with Ed Porter most impressive in finishing in 1.28.37 for 192nd, with Nick Mahoney 453rd in 1.38.09.

The remaining Chichester finishers were all in the veteran category with Terry Healy 586th (24th over-55) in 1.42.56, a new personal best for John Betts 587th (12th over-60) in 1.43.01, Mike Moorcroft 648th (91st over-40) in 1.44.58, Peter Shaw 960th (23rd over-60) in 1.55.01 and Sue Baker 1028th (26th over-50) in 1.57.48.

At Brighton Tony Roddis finished 85th in 36.48 with Chichester’s other two competitors finishing in the top eighth of the field with Angela Carpenter in 322nd just getting the better of Andrew Moore in 323rd.

This Sunday there will be a chance for runners to tackle their personal bests over ten miles with popular Hayling Island event.

This Saturday the second fixture of the Sussex Cross Country League takes place at the Plumpton Agricultural College just north of the downs above Brighton.

The runners are likely to be faced with a different test of fitness to the first match at Goodwood last month.

Where the Plumpton course will not have the challenging hills of Goodwood, much of the terrain is likely to be soft underfoot with the ability to negotiate the mud likely to be a major factor.

As usual the first race is off at 12.30pm with the under-13 girls and the senior men concluding proceedings with a 2.30pm start.