CRAIG IS TOP OVER 10

CRAIG BAKER is the South Of England Under-20 Decathlon champion and by definition now the area's outstanding all-round athlete. Worthing Harriers Athletics Club's 19-year-old Brunel University sports science student from Goring battled through a windy weekend at Bedford to defeat six rivals and hold off Robert Simmons of Ryston Runners with a staying performance in the gruelling, concluding 1,500 metres.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Jul 2004, 13:39 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 01:01 BST

His winning margin in the event made famous by the great Daley Thompson of Crawley, was only 48 points, with a personal-best tally of 5,847 points '” his best by 650. Simmons' penultimate javelin throw of 51.6m drew him into late contention after Baker had taken the overall competition lead when his 1.94 high jump hoisted him from fourth place with four disciplines completed.

Said Baker: "I wasn't expecting his javelin distance so I knew I had to stay within 200 metres of him in the 1,500m." Baker came in 40sec behind Simmons to clinch victory in his final year in an event in which at the Sussex Championships he was the bronze medallist last year and the silver the season before that.

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Baker chalked up personal-bests in five of the 10 disciplines (100m, 400m, 100m hurdles, shot and discus) and equalled it in the pole vault. The other disciplines are the long jump, high jump, javelin and 1,500m. It was the sixth decathlon of his career. He holds the Sussex individual Under-20 high jump, long jump and pole vault titles.

Baker is coached at Brunel in sprints by Cypriot, Costas Karageorghis: "I've been supported at Harriers by everyone but at Brunel this winter I was concentrating on increasing my power.

"The Sussex Decathlon championship will be at Crawley in September but before that I'm aiming to take the club Under-20 record for the 110 metres hurdles, although it's not a league match event so I'll have to find an open meeting somewhere. The record is 15.7. My best is 15.87.

Baker's South Of England details on page 74.

JESSICA CHALLEN'S personal-best 27.95 metres on her last throw in a testing crosswind gave her the javelin victory for Sussex in the Southern Inter-Counties Under-13 Championships, contested by 12 counties at Kingston on Sunday.

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But Abigail Fowlie was six tenths of a second away from winning the 800 metres in a great finish over the last 400m in a personal-best 2min 27.0sec. That placed her second, and Tom Marsden was second in the boys 800m. Despite being baulked and tripped at the start and being back in 10th place. His recovery brought him the club Under-13 record in 2min 18.4sec in ultimate defeat by Stephen Cavey, the UK No 1.

Marsden's 23.94m for overall seventh in the javelin was the leading B string.

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