COLCHESTER Harriers' Phillipa Davenall secured a superb gold at the Under-20 Southern Outdoor Age Group Championships at Crystal Palace.

The talented hammer thrower posted a stunning new personal best (PB) of 56.69 metres, adding just under a metre onto her previous best.

Green Vests' Charlie Dobson qualified through to the under-20 men’s 100m final.

Despite a nerve-wracking false start and then a second hesitant start where he was trailing, he charged his way through to claim an excellent bronze medal in a time of 11.12 seconds (-3.6w).

Harriers' Rebecca Jeggo faced tough competition in her under-20 women’s 100m.

Despite a fast heat into a strong head wind, which almost knocked her out of her lane, she was denied a place in the final after missing out by just one tenth of a second.

The blustery conditions provided enough challenge with readings up to -3.6, reducing the opportunity of achieving quick times.

Thanks to wide-ranging improvements that are still being carried out, the championships were able to return to the iconic Crystal Palace venue.

Work continues on repairing and cleaning the track itself, and on much of the infrastructure.

Harriers athletes were out in force at the Essex Schools Championships in Chelmsford, mostly competing for the North-East Essex team.

There were some fantastic performances in some extremely challenging conditions, with the sprinters running into a fierce headwind.

Callum McKay put his injury-hit season well and truly behind him to storm to gold in the intermediate boys' 100m in 11.7s, into a -4.1 headwind.

Young sprinter Graig Anya Joseph is going from strength to strength and also took gold in the junior boys' 100m with a commanding run, clocking 11.67s into a -3.5 headwind.

Thierry Ajala took a fantastic silver in the intermediate boys' 400m just pipping his Harriers club-mate Jed Assemota, who took bronze with a massive PB of 51.37s.

Danny Millward showed his immense potential again with a gutsy bronze medal-winning performance in the inter boys' 3,000m.

In the inter girls' 100m, Megan Stevans finished strongly in her heat before finishing a creditable sixth in the final in 13.8s, into a -3.7 headwind.

Aliyah Soames threw 25m in the junior girls' javelin while Harriers newcomer Kayleigh Hale threw an impressive 26m in the junior girls' javelin.

Kausara Ayoola competed for only the second time to finish sixth in the junior girls' 200m final in an impressive 27.99s, into a -2.9 headwind.

Lauren Strutt was sixth in the inter girls long jump after jumping 4.79m, a new PB by 22 centimetres.

In the girls' 80m hurdles, Katie Rice was again very impressive after running a PB of 13.69, finishing just outside the medals into a strong headwind.

Millie Pressland was fifth in the junior girls' 1,500m in five minutes 08.00s while Savannah Harrison just missed out on the inter girls' 300m final, running 46.2s.

Max Caulfield was fourth in the inter boys' 1,500m while Madeleine Claydon equalled her PB of 1.30m in the junior girls' high jump.