Harries strikes gold with a UK 200m best

TOBY HARRIES notched a UK under-17 200m best at the England Indoor Athletics championships in Sheffield.

Harries, from Chichester, plays rugby for most of the week and trains specifically for athletics just a handful of times a month.

He took gold and broke Tim Benjamin’s 17-year-old UK best by 0.05 of a second, clocking 21.46 in his first-ever indoor championships. He also earned bronze in the 60m.

Two Chichester Runners & AC athletes also fared well at the championships.

Alyssa White (under-15) was drawn in an outside lane for the 60m heats and didn’t get the best of starts, but drew upon her excellent pick-up phase to finish second in 8.24sec and go through to the next round.

In the semi-final and without blocks, she produced a good start and drive to finish fourth in a great new personal best time of 8.07sec.

The under-17s’ 60m event had to be re-seeded at the last minute, which resulted in Sophie-Anne Haigh being held in the call rooms for nearly an hour after warm-up and before racing.

She did respond well with a technically-sound performance in the high-quality field to finish fourth in 7.98sec, just 0.01 off her personal best.