Hastings ace strikes gold

Elise Lovell won the South of England AA Senior Heptathlon Championships at Bedford International Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.

She produced some outstanding personal bests to add 268 points to her heptathlon best score.

On Saturday, Lovell set a Hastings AC club record and personal best of 14.55 seconds in the 100m hurdles, as well as recording a PB of 1.61m in the high jump, 9.40m in the shot and 26.11 seconds in the 200m.

The fine form continued on Sunday with a 5.73m long jump, 29.90m javelin throw and 2:21.12 800m run - a personal best by five seconds. Those performances gave Lovell an overall score 4978 points - a personal best and Hastings AC club record.

Competition was fierce with rival Devon Byrne, of Milton Keynes AC, and Lovell going into the final event, the 800 metres, in close company.

But with Lovell running that aforementioned personal best by over five seconds, she won the competition by 77 points (Byrne scoring 4901 points).