The Chichester athletics star who’s taken his talents to the USA

Fast forward 12 months and the 21-year-old has won a major cross country event on the west coast of America.

Having just enrolled at Boise State University, Idaho, Potter flew with the rest of the squad for the University of San Francisco season-opener cross country. He won the race outright but led his team to a win over nationally-ranked Stanford.

Potter covered the 8k course in a quick 24min 10sec, the perfect start to his American adventure. Already the Chi club record holder over 5000m and 10,000m on the track as well as 5k and 10k, Potter is aiming to set new marks on the other side of the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, showing that age is no barrier, James Baker, now in the over-45 age group, proved he is still a force to be reckoned with over longer distances by winning the New Forest Marathon.

In hot conditions, Baker won by over three minutes in a creditable time of 2.40.13, one of only four runners in the near-2000 strong field to break the coveted three-hour barrier.

Baker has kept his level of performances over the longer distances, including muitl-terrain, where he has always been so strong, but his recent times on the track over 5000m and 5k on the road have been within a minute of the times he was running in his 20s.

His unparalleled feat of 1000 races wins is receding into the distance with a new target of 1100 just a dozen wins away. In the same race Chichester’s Mikeey Kwoka set a new personal best of 3.04.38 for a fine seventh place.

Elsewhere, two of Chichester’s under-15 squad were in action in the Southern Inter Counties U15 championships in Oxford.

Proudly wearing their Sussex vests, for Molly Smithers and Stanley Wilkes this was reward for their consistent season on the track.

Hot conditions made fast times difficult, but both competed well against some of the best middle distance runners in the south and now look forward to the start of the cross country season.