Louise Shortland, the pole vault record holder from Stevenage and North Herts AC, collected another medal for third place in the England Athletics under-23 championships. Her top height was 3.40m at a very windy Birmingham. The club s men s team continued

Louise Shortland, the pole vault record holder from Stevenage and North Herts AC, collected another medal for third place in the England Athletics under-23 championships.

Her top height was 3.40m at a very windy Birmingham.

The club's men's team continued its successful campaign in this summer's programme, winning at Peterborough, and retaining fourth in the league.

Many first places were won with Ton Tomu collecting three for the 100m, 200m and long jump A strings; double winners were Cameron Webb (100m and 200m B), Dan Poulton (1500m A, pb of 4:00.5, and 400m B), and Elior Harris (triple jump A and long jump B).

First places were also taken by Josh Moss (800m B), Aaron Hull (javelin A) and the 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams.

The other team members, all contributing valuable points, were Aaron Reynolds, Adam Searle, Callum McKechnie, David Bowker, Sean Pollen, Connor Winters, Warren Herridge, Patrick David, and Steve Feely.

The women's team travelled to Perivale, Middlesex, for their league match, missing eight or nine usual top points scorers.

The girls and women on the day performed really well, stepping up to fill the spaces in all the events.

They finished in third place, pleased to have beaten the home team, and are now ninth in the 25-team league table.

The under-15 girls' team produced four first places - Renee Hector won both the discus A and the shot B events, Hannah Dewhurst, recovering her pre-injury form with each race she runs, won the 1500m, and Janet Browne did the same in the high jump A.

Under-17 Jess Barber packed in the points, winning the B string pole vault with 2.10m in her first outing in this event, following it up with a win in the 80m hurdles B as well as a third place in the 300m hurdles.

Loren Scanes won the discus B, Nikki Andrews the pole vault A and Caroline Keeble the 1500m B.

The other team members in the under-15s team were Monica Hamilton, Ayo Awokoya, Alice Rackham, Nicola Yates, Sarah Pike, Martina Barber, Jade Barber, Shannon Rapacchi, and Laura Feely.

Senior members were Bethan Scanes, Bunmi Awokoya, Ashleigh Clarke, Joylyn Saunders-Mullins, Joanne Mansell, Julia White, Chris Feely, Sandra Reed, Wendy Meadows-Smith, and Frances Gross.

The club had a mighty battle in their Eastern Young Athletes League match on Sunday at Stevenage.

The end result of third spot of the seven teams with 631.5 points, behind Havering/Mayesbrook (730.5 points) and Peterborough (685.5 points), puts them into fifth place in the 26-team league.

Facing six other teams, first places were hard earned. Under-13 girls, Georgia Hazell and Hollie Reader, scored a double first in the A and B strings 1500m; and under-15 girls Janet Browne (pb of 1.55m) and Alice Rackham won both of the strings in the high jump, and in the pole vault, while Tilly Farman won her first competition at this event.

Under-17 girls Charley Nightingale (80m hurdles A and triple jump A) and Beccy Knapp (shot put A and hammer A) were double winners.

Under-13 boy William Ridgeway won the high jump, and under-15 boy Daniel Gardner won his pole vault A.

The under-17 boys had six first places - Luke Hennessey winning both 200m and 400m B races, Tan Chowdhury both the long jump B and the high jump A, Connor Winters took the pole vault A as did Jack White in the javelin A.

Four of the club's youngsters were competing at Reading, representing Herts Schools in the Regional Combined Events Championships (South East Counties). There were 28 competitors in each age group.

Nick Stoppard (Hitchin Boys), in the under-17 boys' group, who has been nursing a damaged hamstring for the past few weeks, worked himself in third place to gain entrance to the All England finals in September.

His best performances were in the long jump (6.34m), 400m (52.3), 100m hurdles (15.2) and shot (12.29m).

Two girls took part in the under-17 group, with Chloe Vernon-Hamilton (Highfield) eighth, totalling 3834 points, and Anne Rees (Heathcote) ninth with 3811 points, helping the Herts team to second of the six counties. Anne posted an impressive pb of 9.18m in the shot.

Under-15 girl Alex Gates (Highfield) was 11th overall, long jumping a pb of 5.06m during the day.

Full results of all meetings are posted on the club's website www.snhac.org.uk