Gemma Dawkins: 'Race of her life'

JERSEY produced their best ever performance at the South of England Championships in Watford at the weekend, according to coach Andrew Winnie.

Zane Duquemin once again rose to the occasion throwing three lifetime bests in the U20s discus to win a silver medal with a throw of 54.27m.

He lost out to world No 6 Curtis Griffith-Parker, his training partner, who also took the win in the shot putt in which Duquemin produced a personal best for a bronze medal with 16.26m.

Having comfortably qualified for the final of the U20s 400m, Gemma Dawkins had the race of her life, beating the UK No 1, and Commonwealth Youth Games medallist, Shelayna Oskan by one hundredth of a second.

With only the winner finishing clearly there had been a nervous wait of several minutes to separate the other seven before the result was confirmed with Dawkins learning that her run of 56.07, which was half a second inside her PB, was good enough for a bronze medal.

Another taking a bronze medal was Jenna Murphy, who was Jersey’s first athlete on the podium, after her clearance of 1.60m gained her third place in the U20s women’s high jump while distance runner Felicity Johnson-Deeley won a bronze medal in the U17s 3,000m.

Peter Irving produced a season’s best of 53.43 in the 400m hurdles for fourth place, finishing behind three international athletes, and remains on course for the Commonwealth qualifying time of 52.5.