Colchester Harriers’ Louis Persent booked a summer trip to Serbia, where he will compete in the 400 metres for Great Britain at the European Junior Championships in July.

On a very hot weekend in Bedford at the England Championships, he finished second in the under-20 men’s 400m in a time of 46.87 seconds.

It will be the third year in a row Persent has represented Britain at a major championships.

Also at Bedford was Michael Holden, who put in a superb performance in what is becoming his favourite event, the pole vault.

In the under-23 men’s competition, he cleared 4.55m to earn himself a well-deserved bronze medal.

Jade Morgan also achieved the qualifying standard to take part in these championships and competed in the under-23 women’s triple jump, jumping a best of 11.88 metres.

At Corby, the regional schools combined events competition took place and the Harriers had three young athletes who had wins in their competitions.

Jessica Cutts won the inter-girls’ heptathlon with a 3.941 points score, which included a 13s 80m hurdle run, a personal best (PB) of 1.48m in the high jump, a shot putt of 7.98m and a 200m time of 27.4s.

She long jumped 4.55m, threw the javelin 28.38m and had another massive PB in her favourite event, the 800m, of 2m 28.9s.

Cameron Irwin eased to victory in the inter-boys’ octathlon, with a 4,910 points haul.

He recorded a 6.20m long jump, a 32.1m discus throw, 49.9s in the 400m, 14.1s in the 100m hurdles, 1.79m in the high jump, 12.20m in the shot and 4m 24s in the 1,500m.

Kaneesha Johnson won the senior girls’ heptathlon, without too many problems.

All three will now go to Bedford to represent Essex Schools at the finals in September.