Southampton AC’s athletes scooped nine medals at the South of England indoor championships in the magnificent Lee Valley indoor stadium in north London.

Sophie Merritt won gold and silver in the shot put over the two days of competition. She won the U17 event with a distance of 12.05m, before finishing second in the U20 category a day later with 12.22m.

Also in the shot put, Ellie Hodgson won gold in the U15 girls’ event with a new pb of 10.74m. Michelle Hallett won bronze in the senior women’s category with 8.15m. Adam Jones and Katya Oldfield, both English Schools Junior high jump champions in 2013, won gold in their first year in U17.

Jones matched his PB of 1.93m with Oldfield only 3cm short of her PB, winning with a height of 1.63m. Southampton’s fifth gold medal of the weekend came from Sam Bass-Cooper, who won the U20 men’s pole vault with a height of 4.40m (see story above).

Ellie Hodgson won bronze in the U15 girls’ 60m in 8.06s. Representing the senior men, Ben Davies came 12th in long jump with 5.93m and fifth in his heat for the 60m. In his first year competing in U20 men’s section, Rory Farrell came fifth in long jump with 6.05m. Also in the U20 men’s section, Niall Holt was fifth in the final of 1,500m in 4.04.06min. Owen Lawrence, in his first year in the U17 men’s age group competing in the high jump, cleared 1.75m – 5cm short if his PB. He finished eighth overall.

Also moving up to a new age category, U17 women, Izzy Bryant was second in her 60m sprint and sixth in the semis.

In 200m she came third in her heat and eighth in shot put.