Hewitt's treble win puts East Grinstead top

East Grinstead Athletic Club's ladies and U15 girls team had the third match of their season last Saturday in Division Two South of the Southern Women's League.

This was the club's home match, but because there are no adequate facilities in East Grinstead the club hired the Broadbridge Heath track in Horsham for the match.

Jo Lister's first appearance of the season at the end of her second year at university strengthened the senior team and she gained a good first place in the 200 metres (28.3 seconds) as well as 1.35m clearance in the high jump to win the B string.

Jo Wykes made it a double first in the 200m with a B string win and, together with Janice Watts, ensured another double triumph in the pole vault.

The club's traditional strength in the horizontal jumps was maintained with Tessa Martin winning both the long and triple jumps – 4.65m and 10.08m – with Biba Chuta winning the B string long jump and Janice Watts winning the B string triple jump with 8.68m.

Tessa Martin and Biba Chuta also earned two first places in the U17 80m hurdles and Chuta earned her third first place in the 100m. The throws were rather less productive than usual but each event was covered – with the help of a couple of mums who were there to watch – and useful points were gained.

In the U15 section Amy Hewitt again produced three good wins – 4.60m in the long jump, 13.4 seconds in the sprint hurdles and 28.5 seconds in the 200m. Amanda Lord supported her with a B string 200m win.

Also on the track Izzy Turnbull ran well to win the A string 800 in 2 minutes 41.1 seconds after earlier winning the B string high jump.

Sarah Rusling again picked up a B string long jump win (4.17m) and also won the B string hurdles race. Gemma Akehurst (12.17m) and Amanda Lord (11.38m) produced a surprise double win in the discus.

Eleven-year-old Abby Beswick made her first appearance for the club and was soon earning a valuable second place in the B string shot (5.61m). She then won her B string 100m (15.3 seconds) and ended her day with a 3.72m jump in the non-scoring long jump.

At the end of the day both 4 x 100m relay produced good winning runs in 56.7 seconds (the seniors) and 57.6 seconds for the U15s.

And despite not being quite at full strength it was East Grinstead who came out on top in the match with 265 points followed by Paddock Wood's 211.5 points with a combined Redhill/Dorking/Holland Sports team in third place. The team will have their fourth match on July 25 at Uxbridge.

Training continues at Imberhorne School in Imberhorne Lane on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Juniors train from 7pm to 8pm, while the older athletes train from 7.30pm to about 8.45pm.

There will be a change in the normal programme on July 9 and 14 when the club's own championships for U13s and U15s will be held.

New members are able to join for the rest of this summer's competitions. New members have to be in school Year Six or above to be able to join.

If you are interested contact Lester Medcalf on 01342 315589 or lestermedcalf@btinternet.com, or visit www.egac.co.uk for more information.