A PAIR of Kent athletes bagged medals for England competing Down Under in the Commonwealth Youth Games as Chris Gearing won a pair of medals in the throws and pole-vaulter Natalie Olson won bronze.

Chris, from Chatham, suffered mixed fortunes as he lost out on the gold medal in his specialist event in the last round but he later picked up an unexpected bronze medal in the discus in the under-19 competition which took place in Bendigo, Australia.

The two-time English Schools’ winner seemed in control of the competition after launching a second round throw out to 18.30m but in the final round India’s Sourabh Vij produced a 18.45m effort to take the lead. Unfortunately, Chris could not respond with his final throw as he fell out of the circle.

Chris said: "It’s been like that all season. I missed out on a place in the final of the world juniors by 1cm. I knew he (Vij) was always going to catch me. In the last round I just thought I’ve got to ‘smash it’ but I couldn’t get up for it. Silver is good, but it’s still gutting to lose out in the last round."

Chris earned a bonus by winning a bronze medal in the discus with a throw of 50.81m – one centimetre short of his lifetime best. He only decided to enter the discus on the morning of the competition and said: "I hadn’t picked up a discus for three months and I feel lot better now after missing out on the shot put."

Faversham’s Natalie Olson, the AAA junior pole vault champion, cleared 3.60m for bronze in the pole vault but she was well down on her personal best of 3.90m.

Losing out to Scotland’s Kim Skinner for the silver medal, the 18-year-old, who is studying in Loughborough, said: "I was a little bit disappointed but it is not too bad because it is not the competition season. It is better to have something rather than nothing."