Chichester's under-15 athletes are improving all the time

In their five-team West Sussex division, Chichester had to give way to a very strong Crawley squad but managed to emerge from the match in front of their closest rivals Horsham and Worthing.

Especially impressive were the girls.

Holly Beaton and Rose Ellis achieved the best result of the evening, dropping just one point in the 1,500m while Nicola Mead and Clare Fraser battled in the 800m.

Jade Bailey, Zoe Nunn, Amy Brown and Lily Holland had to contend with some fierce sprinting, especially from the English schools’ winning relay team of 2010 from Worthing.

In the high jump, Lucy Ellis and Ayesha Gyening both cleared 1.30m with Brown and Beaton not far behind while Bailey and Holland went over four metres in the long jump.

In the throws, Molly Summers set a new personal best in discus as well as good marks in the shot putt, while in the javelin she was just behind Debbie Buckley in second.

It was more of an all-round showing from the boys with Josh James throwing a new personal best of 36m in the javelin and newcomer Harry Isted proving his worth by winning the B string with 34.73 after winning the A string high jump with an impressive 1.53 clearance and placing second in the shot.

Another newcomer, George Cody, was edged out of a B string high-jump win on countback after posting a good third place in the long jump.

Elsewhere in the throws, George Humphrey and Peter Thomas gained excellent points in discus, shot and hammer.

On the track, Ewan Willis and Will Kallaway made their first appearances of the season and gained useful experience against tough opposition while regular middle-distance duo Josh James and Dan Eeles were just behind Sussex No1 Ben Golding from Crawley in the 1,500m with both Chichester runners again sub 4min 45sec.

* It is a busy time for all Chichester’s athletes at the moment, especially the juniors as the full young athletes’ team travels to Bournemouth this Sunday (June 5) for the third round of the National Young Athletes’ League.

Currently in second place in their division behind leaders Winchester, the competition is sure to be challenging as host club Bournemouth will be at full strength and national cross-country champions Aldershot, Farnham & District will be among the opposition. We’ll have full coverage next week.