» Listings for 2019

1. TWO MEDALS GAINED AT SUSSEX COMBINED EVENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS

   Posted on 12:00pm Sunday 8th Sep 2019

   The Sussex Combined Events Championships, the usual finale to the track season, took place at Sutton Arena in conjunction with the Surrey Championships. The Blue Stars picked up two medals from Sophie Hogton, in the Under 15 Girls Pentathlon and from Phoebe Penston, in the Under 13 Girls Pentathlon. Hogton began her competition by leaping a personal best 4.85m in the Long Jump, and then followed this up with a 75m Hurdles run of 12.64s, she then threw 6.56m in the Shot and cleared 1.29m in the High Jump to set two more personal bests. The final event, the 800m, saw her run 2m53.56s to total 2256 points for the Pentathlon to secure the silver medal just 80 points behind the winner. Penston’s Pentathlon, also saw her start with the Long Jump, where she leapt 4.03m, she followed this with a 13.03s run in the 70m Hurdles and a 5.30m throw in the Shot. She then unfortunately failed to clear a height in the High Jump, which put pressure for her final event the 800m, but showing a tremendous determination she ran 2m45.83s to catch her closest rival to snatch the bronze medal with a total score of 1521 points.

   In the South of England Under 15 Inter Counties held at Oxford, two Blue Stars competed, with Alina Hillicks throwing 28.76m to take 7^th place in the Under 15 Girls Discus, having earlier finished 11^th in the Hammer event with a new club record throw of 27.20m. Emily Hutchinson, competing in the Under 15 Girls High Jump, cleared 1.40m to finish 10^th.                                                                   

2. GOLD FOR SOPHIE AND CHARLIE IN SUSSEX 3K CHAMPIONSHIPS

   Posted on 12:00pm Sunday 1st Sep 2019

   The Sussex 3000m Track Championships took place at K2, Crawley, with Blue Star athletes picking up 3 medals across the various age groups. The Under 15 Boys race saw an intelligent run from Charlie Ferris who having sat in with the leading group took the lead with two laps to go an progressively drew away from the opposition to take the gold medal running a personal best time of 10m12.22s. Reuben Marsden finished in 5^th place in 10m23.84, also a personal best. The Under 15 Girls race saw Sophie Morris also run a sound tactical race to take the lead with just over two laps to go and although strongly challenged over the final 200m, she held on to win in a personal best time of 11m13.55s, which bettered her own club record.

   The Under 17 Men’s race saw Ash Williams pick up a bronze medal, running 9m29.2s, with team mates Sam Richards finishing 9^th (10m20.9s) and Charlie Beckley finishing 12^th (11m12.7s), all running personal bests.

   The Sussex Under 13 League final, also took place on the same day at K2 and saw the Blue Star team finish in 5^th place of the 10 competing Clubs, scoring 226 points, behind winners Crawley (392pts), Brighton & Hove (348pts), Chichester (272pts) and Haywards (268pts). Although missing several key athletes in the Boys team there were several good performances. Kyla Ball continued her excellent season by winning both the High Jump, where she cleared 1.43m, and the Long Jump with a leap of 4.37m. Phoebe Penston took third place in the 70m Hurdles, running 12.73s and another 3^rd place came in the Girls Shot where Ellen Pratt threw 6.68m, with team mate Megan Hulcoop taking 4^th place in the B event (5.58m).  The Boys High Jump saw Theo Ramage clear 1.30m to take 4^th place in the A string, with Tom Easdale finishing 2^nd in the string with 1.25m. Ramage then went on to throw 8.65m in the Shot to finish in 2^nd place in the Shot, whilst in the |Boys Javelin Harry Long threw 24.23m to finish 4^th.

3. UNDER 15 LEAGUE FINAL SEES CLUB FINISH 4TH

   Posted on 12:00pm Friday 30th Aug 2019

   The Sussex Under 15 League Final was held at Withdean Stadium, Brighton, where all ten Clubs competing in the two divisions of the league contested a Grand Final. The Blue Star team, despite missing several athletes, put up a good performance to finish 4^th overall scoring 249 points, behind the teams from Crawley (480 points), Brighton (453 points) and Chichester (346 points).

   The Girls Hammer event saw a double victory with Alina Hillicks winning the A string with a Club record throw of 26.97m, with team mate Hayley Emerson taking the B string with a throw of 26.17m. These two also teamed up in the Discus, with Hillicks winning the A string with a throw of 28.54m and Emerson throwing 20.68m to win the B event. In the Shot, Hillicks finished 3^rd in the A string (7.99m) and Emerson took second place in the B event (7.67m).

   Sophie Hogton ran well in the 75m Hurdles where she ran 12.5s to claim victory, and then jumped 4.79m to take second place in the Long Jump, and finally took third place in the 200m in a time of 28.2s, a new personal best. The Girls Javelin saw Katiya Beckington-Bick throw 22.27m to claim second place, while Emily Hutchinson also took second place in the B string with a throw of 21.73m.

   In the Boys events, Ed Crossman was just edged into second place in the 100m, where he ran a new personal best time of 13.1s. Crossman then jumped 4.71m in the Long Jump which placed him second, with Craig Harris jumping 4.28m for third place in the B string. The 1500m saw Charlie Ferris have a good race where he finished third with a new personal best time of 4m43.3s, and there was a good run from Daniel Booker in the 300m where he took third place in the A race in 44.6s.

4. FINAL SAL MATCH SEES TEAM VICTORIOUS

   Posted on 12:00pm Saturday 17th Aug 2019

   The Blue Star Senior team travelled to Tooting for their final match in this season’s Southern Athletic League fixture. In a tight match they ran out winners, scoring 268 points to runners up London City with 253 points, but well ahead of Paddock Wood (98 pts), Holland Sports (97pts) and Medway Park Phoenix (26pts).

   There were many winning performances. Jess O’Flaherty in the Women’s 400m, put up an excellent performance where she dominated the race to win comfortably in a personal best 59.3s. She then ran 26.9s to win the 200m, and had earlier leapt 4.69m to win the Long Jump. Melanie Bradley won the B races in both the 400m and 200m events, running 66.3s and 29.5s respectively, the former a new personal best. Bradley had earlier also won the B race in the 100m with another personal best of 14.2s. Chloe Billingham competed in a multitude of events, winning the Pole Vault with a clearance of 3.40m and then also winning the 100m Hurdles in 18.6s. Billingham also won the High Jump with a clearance of 1.43m and the Triple Jump with a leap of 9.98m with Renee Bassin winning the B string of these two events with performances of 1.40m and 6.98m respectively. Emma Garry threw 27.97m to win the Discus, having earlier won the B string Long Jump with 4.24m. Billingham took the B string Discus (19.98m) and the B string Shot (8.20m).

   The Men’s events saw Simon Brown win three events, firstly winning the Hammer with a throw of 30.51m and then won both the Shot with a throw of 12.01m and the Discus where he threw 38.71m. The 5000m saw Luke Burgess cruise to victory, running a personal best time of 16m05.8s. A double win came in the High Jump where Sean Carter cleared 1.70m to win the A string and team mate Jack Milnthorpe cleared 1.60m to take the B event. Another double win came in the Javelin, with Elliott Bayley throwing 51.57m to win the A string and Joe O’Flaherty winning the B string with a personal best throw of 38.35m.

   The relay events secured more important points, with Women’s 4x100m team of Anna Sutherland, Renee Bassin, Emma Garry and Chloe Billingham running 57.3s to win their event and the Men’s team of James Hedges, Sean Carter, Adam West and Tom Gilsenan-Best also storming to victory in 46.6s., and with a final flourish the Women’s 4x400m team of Melanie Bradley, Liz Hutchinson, Anne Billingham and Jess O’Flaherty also came home victorious in 5m10.5s, with O’Flaherty making up a deficit of 100m on the final leg.