THE newly-promoted Braintree and District Athletics Club's men's team started life in the Southern Men's League with an excellent second-place finish at Peterborough.

The performance gives them a good base to build on in their hope to achieve further promotion within the league structure.

Although missing their main scorer from last season, Clint Barrett, the rest of the team racked up vital points, with many athletes competing over a variety of track and field events.

Damien Hartshorne, after success on the track, claimed first place in the 400 metres hurdles and 800m and carried on with a well-timed race in the 400m, to take second place.

He then turned his attention to the high jump and javelin, gaining third and second place respectively.

Leighton Green, a county athlete, also made a contribution with victories in the shot, javelin and 110m hurdles.

He also secured second place in the hammer and high jump, before rounding his day off with a third in the 400m B race.

Mitchell Jarvis, Martin Pitts, Lewis Walker-Everton, Tim Wormull, Michael Cole and Daniel Ransen, with the added experience of veterans Graham Jarvis and Danny Perkins, accumulated vital points during the meeting to give Braintree an exemplary start to the season.

Results: Damien Hartshorne: high jump B, 3rd; 400m A, 2nd; 400m hurdles A, 1st; 800m, A, 1st; javelin B, 2nd. Leighton Green: high jump A, 2nd; shot A, 1st; 400m B, 3rd; 100m hurdles B, 1st; javelin A, 1st; hammer A, 2nd. Mitchell Jarvis: long jump A, 2nd; 200m B, 2nd; triple jump B, 3rd. Lewis Walker-Everton, long jump B, 2nd; 400m B, 2nd; triple jump A, 4th. Graham Jarvis: shot B, 2nd. Martin Pitts 100m A, 2nd; 200m A, 2nd. Tim Wormal, 100m B, 2nd.Michael Cole 800m B, 1st; 1500m A, 4th; 3000m steeplechase A, 2nd. Daniel Ransen 1500m B, 4th; Danny Perkins 110m hurdles A, 3rd; Hammer B, 2nd, 3000m steeplechase B, 1st; Relays - 4x100m, 3rd 4x400m, 1st.

The small band of Braintree and District AC members who competed on the first day of the Essex AAA Elite Championships acquitted themselves well.

Several personal bests (PB) were achieved, while two county medals were awarded to club athletes.

Clarice Parrott, in her first major season, added an under-13 long jump gold medal to her winter achievement of a silver indoor Essex County AAAs medal.

She led with an open winning leap of 4.42m which created a new PB and now ranks her as number one under-13 long jump in the Eastern Region of the UK.

Earlier in the day she had made the final of the 1,200m by taking second place in the semi-finals.

But with the final only minutes after her victory in the long jump, all the energy in her legs had been drained by her efforts and this reflected on her final placing in the 1,200m final.

Another medallist, Aleasha Kiddle, won her under-17 200m heat, in an extraordinary PB time of 25.35s.

She went on to better this in the final with a run of 25.1s but was unfortunate to only gain bronze after a closely-fought photo-finish.

Emily Abbott qualified for the under-15 girls' 200m final and just missed out on a new PB by 3/100ths of a second.

Good performances came in the under-13 girls' 1,200m and 70m hurdles, where Sofia Diss just missed out on qualifying for the final.