St Albans AC claimed four medals, two of them gold, as they came away from the South of England Championships at Ashford with one of their best ever hauls. James McMurray (U15 boys 1500m) and Jake Awe (U15 boys long jump) both set new club records in stri

St Albans AC claimed four medals, two of them gold, as they came away from the South of England Championships at Ashford with one of their best ever hauls.

James McMurray (U15 boys 1500m) and Jake Awe (U15 boys long jump) both set new club records in striking gold.

Silver medalist Christian Gaddes made it a one-two in the long jump, while Abi Holmanalso finished second in the U17 women's triple jump with 10.93m.

With St Albans AC representatives facing the cream of athletic talent across southern counties, McMurray, ranked number one in Britain, oozed quality, his winning time of 4mins 13.74secs being two seconds faster than his previous best produced earlier this month.

Competition between Awe (5.76m) and Gaddes (5.71m) also pushed each other to significantly improved personal bests.

While there was satisfaction for the medalists some others were left frustrated by near-misses.

Verulam pupil Jason Tang's 11.99secs in the U15 boys 80m hurdles was a career best but one place from making the medal podium.

While Kieran Moss, who entered the championships in outstanding form, injured an ankle with his first round triple jump of 13.28m and, unable to better the leap, had a bronze medal ripped from his grasp in the final round of jumps in an U17 men's competition which included the top five ranked athletes in the country.

Awe also set a club record (11.91secs) in the 100m heats but was unable to sustain that level of performance when eighth in the final.

There were also final appearances from Alix Smith (sixth U17 women's shot putt), Abi Wilde (fourth U15 girls' javelin), Alicia Tymon-McKewan (fifth U15 75m hurdles), Gaddes (fifth U15s boys' high jump), William Dean (U15s 200m), Luke Yaxley (80m hurdles) while Chris Hilton set his new best of 2min 05.01sec for fifth in the U15s boys' 800m.

Khalid Al-Abaidy's 4min 15.4sec improved his 1500m best by five seconds but narrowly failed to secure a spot in the U17 men's 1500m final. St Albans are back in National Young Athletes League action on Sunday with a tough match against Ashford, Herts Phoenix and South London at the Gosling Stadium in Welwyn Garden City.