THE Andover athletes travelled to Portsmouth for the first major meeting of the summer, to compete in the Hampshire County Championships.

The local club came away with an impressive tally of ten medals, eight of which were gold.

It was a very successful weekend for two of the clubs sprinters, both bringing home two gold medals each. Holly Croxford continued her successful season winning both the under 17 women's 300m and 200m.

She ran a quick time of 40.52secs in the 300m to set a new Championship Best Performance, and followed that up with an impressive 25.64secs over the 200m.

Fern Parker also achieved a sprint double, winning both the under 20 women's 100m and 200m. Fern dipped under the 13sec barrier, to win the 100m in a time of 12.98secs and followed this up with 26.54secs to win the 200m.

This completed a successful couple of weeks for Fern, as a week earlier she set two new club records, whilst competing at the annual Brewers Games in Cheltenham.

She ran the 150m and 300m, recording 19.3secs and 42.4secs respectively. Vicky Wise produced a solid performance in the under 20 women's pole vault, clearing a height of 2m 30cms to become the County Champion.

The second gold medal in the field came in the under 15 girls shot putt, where Hannah Ashmore beat the 9m barrier, recording a winning distance of 9m 12cms. In the under 13 girls 100m, Abbie Tarrant won the gold medal in the 100m.

For full report see the Andover Advertiser sports section.