On a warm sunny Sunday Crawley AC hosted the final match in the series of four, competing against Horsham and Epsom & Ewell. With a strong team present, a win was predicted and this did not disappoint.
The day began with the usual classy hurdling display from the Crawley athletes. In the U13 age-group Tamsin Campbell won with 13.1 (pb) and Alison Crocker was 4th with 13.9. David Bishop's hurdling technique has improved rapidly, enough to beat his team mate Andrew Cowie into second place, with times of 13.1 and 13.2 respectively. In the U15 age group Keiron Cunningham came back from long term injury issues to produce a personal best of around one second with 13.4 while Justin Tarrant finished close behind him in 13.9. The girls Beth Crocker and Demi Hide were neck and neck to the finish line, both given 12.9 but with Beth given 2nd and Demi given 3rd.
The 800m races produced outstanding results for Crawley - U13's Matthew Boxall and James Kinnear both producing pb's to finish 2nd and 3rd with 2.31.9 and 2.32.9 each while Sophie Mansfield dominated her race as usual for a win in 2.32.3. Under 15's Paige Clark and Ben Golding (both 1st year U15's) won their races with 2.26.6 and 2.17.0 respectively and U17's Abigail Ashbee-Simmonds and Tom Mulligan did the same with 2.22.6 and 2.14.0. In the longer races the U13 girls Lauren Callaghan and Libby Moody displayed their strength by coming 1st and 2nd with 4.06.0 and 4.24.5 each, Libby running her first race at this distance and discovering she quite enjoyed it!
The short sprints then followed - U13 girls Elise Haworth and Stephanie Shackel finishing 1st and 2nd in the 75m with 10.6 and 11.1 and U17 men Chris Brownlee and Dominic Durrell doing the same in the 100m with 11.5 and 11.7. There was also a good win for U15 Joel Buckett with 12.7. In the longer sprints there were wins for U13 Elise Haworth in the 150m (21.2) and U15 Ben Golding in 200m (26.8) with Matthew Warren close on his heels in 2nd place with 26.9. In the 300m/400m races Crawley also had good results with wins for U17 Jessica Cook in the 300m (45.3) and Joel Buckett in 400m (pb of 55.7) and 2nd for U17 Tom Mulligan with 55.8.
Out on the field there were also many first places. U15 Michael Turner had a particularly good day with 1st in shot (11.07), discus (30.00) and javelin (34.49). Other throwers out in front were U15 James Lasis in hammer (45.83), U17 Luke Johnson in javelin (37.04), U13 Munroe Ritchie in shot with a pb of 7.86, U17 Levy Smith in shot with 12.47 and U13 Rebekah Dunt in javelin with with a good pb of 18.74.
The jumpers were also looking strong, with U13 David Bishop winning his long jump (4.55), U15 Beth Crocker also first in long jump (4.62), closely followed by Demi Hide on 4.59 and U15 Matthew Warren winning his long jump with 5.24. High jumper Keiron Cunningham was the only competitor but jumped a good 1.50 while triple jumpers Morgan Hilton and Poppy Weeks both won with 11.78 (personal best for Morgan) and a very impressive 10.66 for Poppy.
The relays, as usual, finished the afternoon with a climax, with wins from the both the U13 teams in the 4 x 100 - boys (Munroe Ritchie, Scott Devlin, William Varcoe and David Bishop) in 55.7 and girls (Stephanie Shackel, Sophie Mansfield, Lauren Callaghan and Elise Haworth) in 56.5. The U15 boys team (Joel Buckett, Justin Tarrant, Matthew Warren and Ben Golding) won in 51.2 while the U17 team (Tom Mulligan, Levy Smith, Dominic Durrell and Chris Brownlee) were just pushed into 2nd by one tenth in 46.6.
The remaining three relays - 4 x 300m for the U17 women and 4 x 400m for U15 boys and U17 men all produced wins for Crawley. The girls (Charlotte White, Jessica Cook, Shannon Wheatley and Gabby Kent) finishing in 3.15.6, the U15 boys (Joel Buckett, Jason Shackel, Thomas Brightwell (replacing an injured William Thompson) and Jacob Sayers) winning in 4.22.0 and the U17's (Tom Mulligan, Morgan Hilton, Chris Brownlee and hurdler Griffin Shiel) all running a fast leg to win with 3.56.2.
The final league position for Crawley AC is 3rd out of 9 teams. Brighton will be promoted as the division winner but Horsham, Crawley and Ashford all finished on the same league points but the final difference being a mere approx 20 match points between each team.