HAVERING MAYESBROOK athlete Lucy Sargent struck gold at the British Universities Indoor Championships, winning the 200m title in the colours of Brunel University at the weekend. Her winning time of 24.63 seconds at Sheffield saw her over a quarter of a se

HAVERING MAYESBROOK athlete Lucy Sargent struck gold at the British Universities Indoor Championships, winning the 200m title in the colours of Brunel University at the weekend.

Her winning time of 24.63 seconds at Sheffield saw her over a quarter of a second clear of the opposition. Sargent had earlier placed seventh in the 60m final in a time of 7.84.

Harriet Scott led for most of the 1,500m, but was outpaced by winner Hannah Brooks (Birmingham) who took gold in 4.26.27 as Harriet just held off the fast finishing Sarah Hood (Edinburgh) in 4.29.56 to claim silver. Sara Luck completed the club's ladies' set of medals taking 800m bronze with a 2.13.63 clocking.

Luke Stott was the only club man on show and added a fourth medal, when he ran the opening leg of Loughborough's silver medal winning 4x200m relay team. Stott also qualified for the 200m final as a fastest loser after his 22.35 semi-final time.

Laura Bealey (Sheffield) slashed over a second off her 400m PB, placing third in her heat with 1.03.00, and was also inside her old PB in her semi-final, despite being baulked. Chloe Van Wulven completed the club contingent, but her 9.64 hurdles performance and 1.50m high jump failed to make the finals.

Jack Edgar-Hill broke a club record set a year before he was born, when he clocked 8.34 for Essex at Lee Valley on Sunday. His career best performance beat Richard Hall's club under-17 60m hurdles best that was set in March 1992 and is the third fastest in the UK in this age group this winter.

Also in winning Essex action in the Inter Counties under-17 and senior match against Middlesex and Herts was Rebecca O'Neill, who clocked 2.22.1 for victory in the under-17 women's 800m event.

Mel Harrison opened her 2009 campaign with a senior women's shot victory with an indoor PB of 11.59m, very close to her summer 2008 best, and Zo� Young added a B string win with 9.56m.

The club's winning sequence was continued by Emmanuel Quarshie who was the senior men's B String shot winner with 11.73m and Laurence Goodacre who was close to his best in throwing 13.84m for victory in the under-17 men's equivalent.

Late withdrawals caused much last minute reshuffling and the senior men did admirably in the circumstances to finish sixth in the Essex Relays at Chelmsford on Saturday. Mat Bland's excellent 19.55 first leg brought the team home 10th and Peter Coates in his first run since injury, improved two places with his 20.13 split.

Rob Warner contributed the fastest leg with his best ever time on the course of 19.27 to claw back one more place to hand over seventh. Chris Smith, who only a few days earlier had been earmarked for the D team, took up the challenge and his 20.44 leg saw him overhaul the Colchester athlete in front of him to finish sixth.

The B team of Martin Chester (20.44), Paul Berrett (21.15), Graham Pritchard (23.29) and Neil Collins (20.52) finished highly while the short-handed C team of Russ Middleton (21.47), Dan Miller (24.21) and Gary Howard (25.13) performed with credit.