Edward Armah (Chichester) retained his under-17s' octathlon title at the Sussex Combined Events Championship at Crawley.

The Chichester High pupil beat last year's total by more than 200 points with 3,956. He was 500 ahead of runner-up Craig Baker (Worthing).

Baker only got the better of Armah in the high jump with a personal best 1.88m.

Armah's club-mate Sam Gillert took the under-13s' pentathlon title after moving in front in the high jump, the penultimate event, with 1.42m.

He then beat county champion Darren Tremble (Crawley), previously unbeaten this season, in the 800m in 2min.19.7sec.

The under-15s' pentathlon was decided on the final event, the 800m. Nick Pritchard (Crawley) needed to finish less than one second behind James Taylor (Horsham) to ensure holding on to his fragile 11-point lead.

As they came off the final bend, the Horsham runner looked to have tied up the title but a spirited dash down the home straight saw Sussex and Sussex Schools hurdles champion Pritchard close the gap to sixth tenths of a second and he took the title by just three points with a total of 2,472.

Things got tight in the girls under-17s' heptathlon when Kate Butters (Hastings) took the lead in the penultimate event, the javelin, with 29.54m to overtake clubmate Meike Howell who managed only 14.73m.

Meike finished five seconds clear in the 800m but was nearly 100 points adrift of Kate's winning total of 3,319.

Lucy Ramsay (Brighton and Hove) was only beaten in the 800m and took the under-15s' penathlon title with almost 400 points in hand on 2,433.

The 800m decided the under-13s' pentathlon. Emily Goodall (Crawley) scored more than 100 points than rival Lisa Henderson (Horsham) to win by 60 with 1,815.