SOPHIE Merritt marked her last Hampshire Track & Field Championships – at least for the time being – with a haul of four gold medals over the weekend.

The 18-year-old Southampton AC throws ace left the county something to remember her by before heading off to university in the United States at the end of August.

As expected Merritt dominated the under-20 shot put (13.42), in which she ranks British number three, adding success in the discus (40.29), hammer and javelin for good measure.

The hammer – an event she doesn’t train for – brought an unexpected improvement of three metres to her personal best (pb), extending it to 42.15.

And even though Merritt had not thrown a javelin for so long that she couldn’t even remember her pb, she still finished at the front of the field with 36.89.

The fact the Newbridge-based athlete is competing at all right now is something to be thankful for.

Her throwing arm still bears the cuts and bruises of a car accident that also left her with a sore hip and bruised ribs.

“I had two weeks where I was struggling to train,” admitted the Peter Symonds College student, who burst onto the international scene last summer by winning shot silver and discus bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa.

“I lost some of my movement while it was healing, but then I came back and added two centimetres to my shot pb (now 13.98) at a UK Youth Development meeting in Southampton.”

Although her discus throwing is none too shabby, Merritt expects to focus more on the shot in America.

The discus is more wind-dependent and I haven’t really had the right conditions,” she said.

“At the moment my shot is better. It’s the shot that’s got me to university, it’s what the coaches have picked up on.

“I’m not sure yet which university I’m going to, but the ones I’m looking at are all in the southern states.

“I used to train all the time with (Southampton javelin international) Freya Jones and she’s still out in America. I’m following in her footsteps.”

Merritt, who hopes to compete for GB Juniors at this weekend’s Loughborough International, is not the only talented thrower in the family.

Her 13-year-old sister Anna took the Hampshire under-15 girls’ hammer title with 32.78 - despite taking up the event less than a fortnight earlier under the expert eye of coach Debbie Callaway.

Debbie’s 14-year-old daughter Sam Callaway successfully defended the under-15 girls’ discus title (34.15), with Anna in second place (31.59).

But Sam’s finest hour came in the javelin where the Hampshire Collegiate School pupil pulled off a championship best 35.18.

The 2016 Championships proved a happy hunting ground for the thriving Southampton throws group coached by Debbie Callaway, her husband Dave and her father Bill Bushnell.

Joshua Douglas pulled off a golden double in the under-15 boys’ discus (37.92) and hammer (41.43), while Joshua Wise claimed the javelin crown with a 50.61 pb.

Busy Ben Upfold was seven metres out in front in the under-17 men’s discus (42.91) and also pocketed silver in the hammer and bronze medals in the triple jump, javelin and shot.

Sam’s brother, Matthew Callaway, broke off from his A’ Level studies at Peter Symonds College to come top of the class in the under-20 men’s discus (44.26), while Bradley Jenvey was third in the under-15 boys’ javelin (39.12).

*SOUTHAMPTON AC were the best represented club at the 2016 Hampshire Athletics Track & Field Championships - and, boy, did they make their presence felt!

The red and white stripes accounted for 135 of the 723 athletes that entered the event and, between them, they pocketed 44 gold medals.

That golden haul surpassed their previous best of 41 two years ago, but their grand total of 104 medals of all colours was just down on the 108 they amassed in 2014. It was, however, a huge improvement, on the 78 won last year.