Young athletes are champs for Chichester

Chichester's under-13s and under-15s jump for joy / Picture by Lee Hollyer

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Chichester produced their best all-round performance of the season at Woking and the squad of 50 athletes gained a hard-fought victory against some quality opposition to emerge as Youth Development League champions.

Trailing Horsham by half a point going into the final match, Chichester knew that they would face a fierce challenge from Horsham and the home club Woking and couldn’t discount a combined Bournemouth and New Forest team.

With just over half the day’s programme completed, the match and league placings could hardly have been tighter with Chichester leading Horsham by just three points at 316 to 313 with Woking producing some excellent results after a slow start.

Chichester’s field event competitors over the last few events performed way above expectations and the relay squads ensured overall victory.

Match result

1 Chichester 536

2 Woking 514

3 Horsham Blue Star 485

4 Bournemouth / New Forest 365

5 Reigate Priory 215

6 Havant 159

Final league positions

1 Chichester 2036pts

2. Horsham Blue Star 1984

3 Woking 1909

4 Bournemouth / New Forest 1751

5 Reigate Priory 836

6 Havant 833

Under-15 boys

Chichester’s under-15 boys have been the strongest of the age groups all season and for the final match they were even more impressive than usual with three useful additions to the team.

Judging by results from other matches in the league, this group would be a match for virtually any club in the south of England.

Cellan Robinson led the way in the sprints with a couple of close second places with Jacob Piper supporting well in the B string.

Finn Buckingham-Rhyder and Jack Dean provided a useful combination over 300m and played a major part in the club’s 4x300m relay win.

Liam Dunne and Alex Mani gained near maximum points in the 800m with Dunne setting a new personal best of 2.13.5. Ned Potter and JJ Staples battled well in the 1,500m while Ethan Brown and Sam Price completed the track programme with one of the most convincing displays, two seconds ahead of the opposition.

In the field events there was a new pairing in the high jump with both athletes jumping higher than ever before. In a high quality competition, six of eight competitors were still in at 1.50m including the two Chichester athletes.

Price cleared 1.55m to win the B string, leaving Alfie Agostinelli in his first match for the club to soar over 1.60 and win.

There was further success in the jumps with Brown winning the pole vault while Price and Robinson picked up good points in the long jump.

It was also in the throws where the club produced its best result of the season. Caelan Stanton finished with the best combined result of the day including a win in the shot putt with a distance of 12.36m, inflicting the first defeat of the season on the top Horsham thrower.

This was followed by a javelin throw of just under 35m, this after Stanton had gained second pace in the hammer with a throw of over 30m in his first attempt at the event.

Jack Purvis joined Stanton for a good B string win in the shot and teamed up with Buckingham-Rhyder for useful points in the discus.