Holly Mills was crowned the South of England U15 Indoor Long Jump Champion at the 2014 championships at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre last weekend.

Holly, pictured on the podium, led from the first round with a series of good jumps.

All bar one of her six efforts were in excess of five metres.

Only one other girl cleared the five metre level, but Holly’s winning jump of 5.17m, (also an indoor PB) was achieved in both the second and fourth rounds of the competition.

It capped a fine weekend for Mills, as the previous day she was also in action in the 60m hurdles, where she took the silver medal with a new PB of 9.30, just 0.08secs behind the winner.

Both her performances should stand her in good stead for the England Athletics National Indoor Championships in early March.

Andover AC were well represented at this year’s Southern Championships with several girls from coach James Coney’s group participating.

Annie Brookes, having moved up an age group, was in action in the U20 Women’s triple jump where she produced a series of good jumps to finish in fifth place with a season’s best of 10.88, only missing out on fourth place on countback.

There were three other U15 girls competing, Jasmine McClutchie, Darcie Henderson and Molly Wood, with all three in action in the 60m.

Jasmine and Darcie were drawn in the same heat and both progressed to the semi-finals with times of 8.39 and 8.47 respectively.

Molly is still a bottom age U15 and was drawn in the fastest heat and, despite matching her PB of 8.71, it was not enough to progress.

In the semi-finals, Jasmine finished fourth in 8.40 and Darcie fifth in 8.48, but that was also not enough to get through to the final.

All the girls performed well and, for a small club, did Andover AC proud.

The fact that four U15 girls participated at these regional championships shows that, in this particular category, the club have a season to look forward to through these girls.