Hastings AC duo in the medals

Elise Lovell struck gold in the under-20 women’s heptahtlon, while Katie Garland won silver in the under-15 girls’ pentathlon in Bedford.

Having come second at the Hexham International Combined Events in Cumbria the previous weekend with 4,594 points and won the SEAAA Long Jump at Ashford with 5.65m earlier in July, Lovell was in fine form.

On Saturday, she put in personal best performances in the 100m hurdles (15.01s for 841pts) and the 200m (25.75), combined with high jump (1.54m for 666pts) and shot (8.96m for 462pts).

The following day, her long jump (5.54m for 712 pts) and javelin (26.03m for 402 pts) left her in second place and with it all to do in the closing 800m.

But a fine run of 2:26.98, beating her personal best by two seconds, was just enough to clinch gold by the smallest of margins, beating her own club record with a points haul of 4,641 in the process.

Garland registered 5.07m in the long jump, 1.51m in the high jump, 6.7m in the shot and 12.2s in the 75m hurdles to lie third going into the concluding 800m, trailing second by 12 points.

She beat the athlete who was in second place, however, by seven seconds with a time of 2:36.54 to secure silver thanks to a points haul of 2,790.

The full article will appear in tomorrow’s Hastings Observer.