East Sussex College student dashes into New Year with silver medal from University athletics competition

An East Sussex College student has won silver in the 60-metre sprint at the Middlesex University athletics competition in London.

Shania Martlew, who studies Sport and Physical Activity at the Eastbourne campus, ran in the women’s competition at the annual indoor finals at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre.

The competition took place towards the end of 2019 on Wednesday 4th December and featured over 30 athletes from universities and colleges in the South East.

The all-day competition consisted of five qualifying heats, with the winners and best runner-up going through to Final A, and the remaining fastest athletes competing in Final B.

Shania, who is also part of Eastbourne Rovers, ran a personal best time of 8.13 seconds to win her qualifying heat and was one-tenth of a second slower in Final A to clinch the silver medal.

The former Willingdon student said, “I was very happy with the silver medal and ecstatic that I ran my fastest ever time over 60 metres in the heats. I competed last year and finished fourth, so I’m really pleased with my improvement this year.

“It was a really tough field of competitors as a lot of the girls are already at university and have more experience than me, but it was an awesome day and I really enjoyed it.”