Sussex stars celebrate Olympic medal glory (From The Argus)

Sussex stars celebrate Olympic medal glory

4:46pm Friday 10th August 2012 in News

Sussex is celebrating Olympic medal glory today.

Brighton's Ashleigh Ball and the GB hockey girls have won a bronze medal at the Olympics.

They secured their first medal for 20 years with a 3-1 victory against New Zealand at the Riverbank Arena this afternoon.

And Saskia Clark, who attended the University of Chichester, and Hannah Mills leave London 2012 with their "heads held high" after today, capping a wonderful 18 months together with an Olympic silver medal.

The pair teamed up early last year following the sudden retirement of Clark's then partner in the women's 470 class, double Olympic gold medallist Sarah Ayton.

They have made miraculous progress since and, having become the first Brits to win the world title a few months back, came into today's medal race with a real chance of topping the podium, sitting joint top of the standings alongside New Zealand's Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie.

However, just like Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell earlier in the afternoon, the duo were thwarted by their Antipodean opponents and forced to settle for silver - Britain's fifth and final sailing medal of the Games.