There were some stunning performances by a trio of Southend AC athletes in the UKA Young Athletes League Southend Division One East match at Ashford.

The match produced some fine performances with 16 personal bests in the boys team but three results stand out.

Adam Hickey's 8.47.8 in the 3000m is the fastest under 17 time in the country this year by six seconds and a grade one by a full 13 seconds.

Daniel Quinn's 4.30.6 under- 17 1500m steeplechase was the second fastest in the country this year and broke the club age record by five seconds.

The under-13 boys almost gained maximum points as Ashley Dowson, Kevin Brown, Andrew Bailey and Adam Macarthy performing brilliantly.

Boys' team manager Martin Quinn said he was delighted with their performances.

But he stressed the need for a strong team for the next two matches to avert the real danger of relegation and the possibility of losing top athletes to other clubs.

There were some very encouraging performances from the girls' youngest age group to claim seven personal bests between them.

Francesca Bragg ran 10.9 and 21.8 in the 75m and 150m. She was partnered by Emily Eaton in the 150 who ran a winning B string time of 22.2.

Both 800m girls ran best-evers with Chloe Montgomery clocking 2:43.4 and Annie Bacon 3:03.00. But there was a very contentious decision by an official to disqualify Annie because she broke too soon when the under-13 race started in lanes. She had always run her 800m races from a curved start.

Chloe improved her high jump to 1.10m, Lauren Bouchard her 70m hurdles to 14.1 and Emily Eaton's long jump went up to 3.80m.

With only six girls covering events in the under-15s they still managed to produce half a dozen improvements.

Amy Chitticks was the winner in both the 100m (13.4) and 200m (27.6) and Zoe won both the high jump with 1.35m and the javelin (29.10m).

The relay squad, comprising Ashley, Zoe, Natalie and Amy, beat the opposition out of sight and clocked an encouraging 53.2.

Published Friday, June 6, 2003

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