Nine championship records tumbled on the second day of the Sussex Championships at Crawley.

Lucy Ramsay (Brighton and Hove) broke a 12-year-old record with the first leap of the day in the under-15 long jump with 5.28m.

Within five minutes, Leanne Buxton (Southwick) broke her own year-old 400m hurdles record in 62.02sec.

Buxton's effort proved she is back to her best and she is on course to become the first Sussex athlete to duck inside one minute.

Before the meeting was ten minutes into a six-hour programme, Hastings veteran Paula Coombs had improved her own senior hammer record.

Coombs took up hammer throwing late in her athletics life. Last year at the championships she set a championship record and this time added another five metres with a fine throw of 38.37m, just short of the Sussex all time record she set last season.

Another senior record came later in the afternoon when 19-year-old Tim Bayley (Woodingdean) broke the five-year-old mark of his hero, Olympian Sean Baldock, in the 400m.

On Saturday, Bayley lost out in a nail-biting finish to Worthing's Alistair Gordon in the 200m. In the 400m, Bayley, who like Baldock runs for the Belgrave Harriers and is in the same training group, was drawn outside Gordon, the reigning champion.

Bayley blazed away and chopped one second off his previous best effort with 47.77sec.

Bayley said: "I really admire Sean. He is an inspiration and I think he is heading for a great season. It is a pity a hamstring twinge kept him away from these championships but it has allowed me to win this title which is great."

Brighton and Hove's Samantha Redd continues to dominate the javelin as she progresses through the age groups.

In her first year in the under- 20 age group, she set a championship record with her opening throw of 44.59m, nearly ten metres better than older sister Kathryn, the reigning champion, who was second.

Horsham's Clare Milborrow, after equalling the 100m hurdles record of 14.08sec on Saturday and winning the 100m, returned to complete a hat-trick by taking the 200m title in 25.61sec.

In the men's 1,500m Patrick Davoren, who missed Saturday's 800m, led from start to finish but he never shook off 800m winner Martin Airey (Blackheath), finishing just five metres clear in 3min.55.16sec.

Gary Power (Herne Hill) chalked up his ninth victory in the discus throw and Tim Medcalf completed nine years as a Sussex champion when he retained his senior triple jump crown after a close battle with Worthing's Christian Holcombe.

Report by Reg Hook
reg.hook1@btinternet.com