Kent athletes won a sackful of medals at the Southern under-15 and under-17 track and field championships at the Julie Rose Stadium in Ashford over the weekend, writes Alan Newman.

Included among 13 Kent gold medals was Medway and Maidstone’s Joseph Thurgood, who claimed the under-15 high jump title with a personal best and club record 1.86 metres to leap to third on the 2013 UK rankings.

Cameron Corbishley (Medway and Maidstone) won the under-17 3,000m walk in 13min 21.4sec to maintain his UK No.1 status in this event. He also leads the rankings at 5k and 10k, both on the road and track in his age group.

Laura Arnold (M&M) was involved in a lengthy tie-break in the under-15 high jump and eventually had to settle for silver with the same height (1.60m) as the winner. The Kent Schools high jump champion also set a new personal best for fifth in the long jump (4.89m).

Darcey Kuypers (M&M) added silver from the under-17 200m (27.13) and was eighth in the 100m final (12.97). There was also bronze reward for Natasha Scott (M&M) in the under-15 triple jump with a new club record (10.37m) – the ninth-best performance in the UK this year.

Kent champion Amber Durrant (M&M) was fourth in the under-15 high jump competition (1.55m) and added a new personal best for eighth in the long jump (4.78).

Medway and Maidstone’s Lewis Heffernan was sixth in the under-17 400m (52.65) and Jake Berry was 11th in the under-15 1500m (4.30.11).