Athletics success across the board for Burgess Hill Girls

It has been an impressive Athletics season for Burgess Hill Girls with individual and team success in all age groups at district level and victory for the Intermediate team at the English Schools Athletics Association Regional Finals.

Both the Burgess Hill Girls Junior and Intermediate squads were triumphant at the Mid Sussex Athletics Championships at K2 in Crawley on the 8th of May. There were six district champions on the day: Jessica Rutter and Natasha King in the Junior and Intermediate shot, Isabella Farrant in the Junior triple jump, Maria Breeze in the Intermediate long jump, Millie Hewitt Lock in the Intermediate High Jump and Martha Cole in the 800 metres. The squads also picked up eight second places and three third places.

Due to their success at the Mid Sussex Championships twelve athletes were selected to represent Mid Sussex at the Sussex County Championships. Four athletes made it on to podium; Jessica Rutter and Maria Breeze secured bronze medals in the Junior shot and Intermediate long jump, Natasha King and Charlotte Campbell-Rayner won silver medals in the Junior shot and Intermediate triple jump. Natasha and Charlotte were both selected to represent Sussex at the Inter County Championships at the StoneX stadium in Barnet, London on the 15th of June.

Meanwhile, also at K2 on 14th May, the Junior and Intermediate squads won their first rounds of the English Schools Athletics Association’s (ESAA) Track and Field Cup with 253 and 351 points. Olivia Fritze recorded the best score of the day in the Junior competition with twenty points for her 200 metres. With twenty-seven points for her personal best in the 800 metres, Martha Cole recorded the highest score in the Intermediate competition.

These performances qualified both teams for the Regional B Final against teams from the South East region at Kingston’s Weir Archer Centre on 11th June. With several new personal bests amongst the teams, the Junior team secured sixth place with 274 points and the Intermediate team won their age category with 368 points.

Helen Lewis, Director of Sport at Burgess Hill Girls, is delighted with the season’s results: “It is immensely pleasing to see the girls getting the results they deserve from all their hard work in training. In the ESSA Cup, points from every individual performance count towards the team score, and this is where our teams come into their own as they all want to do the best for the team and each other.”