Kent's Martin Brockman helped the Great Britain U23 men to second place in the Norwich Union Combined Events international hosted by Ashford's Julie Rose Stadium over the weekend.

The Medway and Maidstone athlete finished a creditable fifth with a personal best 7,016 points in the decathlon after a storming run in the closing 1,500m on Sunday evening.

Having taken out the pace he had to settle for a best ever 4:30.16 in third place behind teammate Ricardo Beckford who smashed his best to win in 4:28.21 and overall winner Ingmar Vos from Holland (4:29.23).

Brockman had a superb second day after a personal best in the high jump on day one with 2.10m with more bests on the Sunday in the 100m hurdles (15.75), pole vault (4.30m), and javelin (48.99) to improve his overall best by 71 points.

Britain finished top team overall over the two days after the U20 men were second in their decathlon while the U23 women were superb winners and the U20 women third in the heptathlons.

Katarina Thompson took bronze for Britain in the U20 women; Catherine Holdsworth won the bronze in the U23 women and in the U20 men Ashley Bryant won a splendid silver. Another silver came in the U23 men for Oliver McNeillis.

In the U20 women, Holland led the way from Stwzeraland and Britain while th in the men France took team gold from Britain and Switzeralnd.

In the U23 women, Britain were triumphant from France and Holland while in the men it was Holland who again topped the ranking from Britain and France.