ANDOVER AC’s Holly Mills was in gold medal form at the weekend as she claimed two U17W titles and two club records at the South of England Indoor Athletic Championships at Lee Valley Athletic Centre.

On day one, Holly was competing in the long jump and, having just moved up an age group, was one of the youngest athletes in the competition.

Despite this, she was still one of the favourites for the title following a successful 2014 season where she had finished as the number one ranked U15 girl in the UK.

Holly got off to a good start in round one, posting the longest jump of 5.57m, and in round two she went and bettered this with a new personal best of 5.83m.

Another 5.57m jump in round three was followed by Holly’s longest-ever jump as she leapt out to 5.91m, which broke a club record that had stood for 39 years.

A no-jump in round five, followed by 5.86m in round six completed the competition as Mills took the title with a winning margin of 64cm.

Also competing was Jasmine McClutchie, who put in a good series of jumps to finish eighth with a best of 4.59m On day two Holly was in action in the 60m hurdles and had set herself a goal of reaching the final.

However, things did not look good for her. In her heat she struggled as she hurdled off her wrong lead leg but still finished second to secure a spot in the semi-final.

With only 45 minutes to the next race Holly worked on her block set-up, and a change in feet placings seemed to do the trick as she ran a much better race to finish second in a new PB time of 9.05 behind the favourite for the event Sophie Ellis (9.01).

In the final she was drawn alongside Ellis and a good start saw her lead to the first hurdle and she did not relinquish it.

With both girls putting in strong finishes off the final hurdle Mills held on from the fast finishing Ellis to claim the title in a new PB time of 8.95 with Ellis just behind in 9.0.

Andover’s strong U17 women’s squad was also represented on the track by Jasmine McClutchie, Lizzie Butler-Clack and Darcie Henderson. In addition to the long jump, McClutchie was competing in the 60m where she produced a PB-equalling run of 8.16 in finishing second in her heat and followed this with another good run of 8.17 in the semi-final.

Butler-Clack was also in action in the 60m where she also finished second in her heat in 8.23 and then produced another solid run of 8.24 in the semi- final but unfortunately both girls’ times were not sufficient to make the final, but they both showed good early season form.

Henderson was in action in the 300m, an event in which she has had limited experience, particularly on the tight indoor track.

Despite this she produced a fine run in finishing second in her heat with a new PB of 43.39 (a time that would have taken silver at last year’s County Championships).

With just over an hour to the semi-final there was little time to fully recover and this was evident as Henderson finished fourth in 44.37 to miss out on a place in the final line-up.