BASINGSTOKE and Mid Hants athletes claimed two medals at the England Under-15 and Under-17 Championships at Bedford last weekend.

Top Basingstoke performer was Kierra Barker, who claimed silver in the under-17 high jump. The 15-year-old showed great tenacity to clear 1.70m and 1.73m with her third and final attempts before securing silver by clearing 1.76m with her opening attempt.

Owen Richardson picked up a bronze medal in the under-15 300m, making it through two rounds before finishing third in the final with a time of 36.78sec.

Another Basingstoke finalist was Lucy Wildash, who broke a club record by running 4min 56.56sec to finish sixth in the under-15 1,500m, smashing her personal best.

James Beeks finished seventh in the under-15 1,500m, clocking 4:22.59, while Katherine Abel was seventh in the under-15 javelin thanks to a throw of 29.59m.

Myles Richardson was forced to withdraw from the semi-finals of the under-17 100m due to injury, while Charlie Sheridan failed to reach the final of the under-15 800m, finishing fifth in his heat.

Barker had earlier enjoyed success at the Inter-Counties Championship at the same venue, winning the senior women’s high jump with a personal best leap of 1.77m.

Tom Syckelmoore was third in the 800m, with team-mate Tom McKellar sixth, while James Bolton finished fifth in the shot. Myles Richardson failed to qualify for the final of the 100m, his run of 10.97sec only being good enough for seventh in the heat.

In combined events, Sam Sleap finished 11th at a meeting in Holland with a score of 6,844 points, while Geoff Butler and Joe Flitcroft travelled to Yeovil, in Somerset, for the tetradecathlon world championships.

The tetradecathlon sees athletes compete across 20 events, from 100m to 10,000m on the track and all of the field events. Butler was eighth in his veterans’ category with 7,471 points, while Joe Flitcroft was 15th in the senior men’s competition with 7,218 points.