Ashford Athletic Club enjoyed considerable success at the Norwich Union England Athletics U15 and U17 national championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham at the weekend.

Again leading the way was the talented 400m hurdler Jack Green who maintained his outstanding year with victory in the U17 final.

In the heats the Shepway youngster did enough on cruise control to win through with 55.31 and then again showed his class to crush the best in the country to win the gold by nearly a second with 53.46.

He is still top ranked nationally with a personal best 52.98 in the Southern championships here at Ashford this year.

Former fellow Brockhill pupil Dwyte Smith now at the Marsh Academy leapt to a personal best 7.16m to win gold in the long jump 24cm clear of his nearest rival in the U17 long jump.

Dwyte, who favourite event is the more technical triple jump, has had to stick with the long jump because of an injury but still has been outstanding to also top the rankings in the country this year.

He needed just one jump to crush the field.

Another Shepway gold came in the walks where Jonathan Hobbs strode to victory in the U17 5000m walk with a personal best 25 minutes 27.80 seconds.

But young Kelsey Howard had to settle for silver in the U15 girls 3000m walk with 16:46.58 behind Waterford’s Kate Veale who set a championship best in the event.

Grace Nicholls had another splendid run in the highly competitive U17 1500m making the top 10m in the country with ninth in 4:37.71.

In was below the Ashford School runner’s personal best set this season at English Schools but shows the quality of the field for this event now.

There was acute disappointment for Ashford AC’s Rachel Hanagan from Canterbury who romped to a fine third place in the U17 300m race andwas on the way to getting her medal when she was told she had been disqualified for stepping out of her lane.