Up-and-coming Basildon AC multi-eventer Lara Carty has once again distinguished herself on international duty.

Lara, 16, helped England to team gold at the junior Home Countries international at Kelvin Hall, Edinburgh, finishing second behind Irish starlet Ciara Kearns in the pentathlon.

The SEEVIC pupil, who lives in Pitsea, also set two personal bests at the competition, extending her shot put mark to 8.95m and 60m hurdles time to 8.85s.

Lara - making her fourth appearance for her country - also scored well in high jump, long jump and 800m, and was delighted with her overall performance.

"I haven't done any real technical work this winter as yet, so I was pleased to do so well in the shot put," she said.

"I'm always looking to improve so it was nice to set the two new personal bests."

Lara will now step up her training for her next big target - the under-20 Amateur Athletics Association Championships in February.

This will be Lara's first full season at under-20 level, although she came to prominence by winning the under-20 AAAs title at Stoke-on-Trent earlier this year.

She is confident of making her mark in the higher age group before training begins in earnest for the county championships in May.

Basildon AC club-mate Rob Smith, from Billericay, was part of the England team which scooped a silver medal at the European Cross-Country championships in Malmo, Sweden.

Rob, making his international debut, finished 62nd in 20 minutes 24 seconds over a distance of 6,135 metres.

Basildon AC's Kim Wall, who attends William de Ferrers school, met Olympic champion Denise Lewis when she added another award to her collection.

Kim, 17, joined her fellow 4x400m gold medalists from October's world junior championships to accept the junior team prize from heptathlete Denise at the Association of Athletics writers awards.

George on a high

More than 70 youngsters competed in the sports hall athletics meeting, organised in conjunction with Southend AC, at Greensward College, Hockley.

Echosport photographer STEPHEN LLOYD captured the action as Greensward's own George Chipper (12, left) won the high jump with a leap of 1.50m, while Jane Elms, also 12, took the four-lap race for Cornelius Vermuyden School, Canvey.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.