JERSEY’S athletes turned in several top performances at the prestigious South of England championships at the weekend.

Three teenage high jumpers led the way at the Brunel University indoor centre with Jenna Murphy claiming bronze in the under-15 competition yesterday with Lucy Crossman fifth and Amy Dingle seventh.

It was, arguably, the highest quality under-15 girls high jump competition in a decade, with the UK’s top two jumpers, Emma Bucket and Chloe Galloway taking part.

Murphy leapt a big personal best of 1.60m – and only narrowly missed 1.63m – while Crossman, in her first under-15 competition, recorded a PB of 1.55m and Dingle 1.50.

In previous years a leap of 1.45 would have been enough to secure gold! Said athletics development officer Andrew Winnie: ‘The girls were brilliant.

For Jenna to jump 1.60 and only come third shows how good the competition was – it was the highest standard for many years.’ On Saturday Dingle had taken the bronze in the long jump, with a leap of 4.87m.

Murphy one place back.

There was also a silver medal for top throwing prospect Jamie Stevenson who summoned up an indoor personal best of 15.04m in the under-17 shot.

But Melbourne-bound high jumper Simon Phelan was disappointed with a leap of 2.05m for fourth place.

The 19-year-old Commonwealth Games athlete had, explained Winnie, been hoping for 2.10m as he builds towards the Games in mid March.

To have any chance of reaching final 12 in Australia he needs to be jumping around 2.10 – and he has done that already.

Said Winnie: ‘He wasn’t happy but he’s only just come out of winter training.

He’s just below his best – and he shouldn’t be at his best yet.

We’ve got six weeks to go and it’s a question of refining his technique to get him back to 2.10.’ Meanwhile Sophie Twinam was seventh in the under-17 ladies’ high jump with 1.50m after producing two PBs the previous day – she recorded 9.95 sec in the sprint hurdles and took sixth place in the triple jump with 10,13m.

Peter Irving was fourth in the 60 senior hurdles – although he will now be looking forward to the longer 400m outdoor version in the summer.