HIGH JUMPER Mark Crowley hailed the proudest moment of his life after helping Hertfordshire to their best English Schools Athletics Championships showing for years.

The 16-year-old from St Columba's College was one of seven gold medallists at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield.

St Albans School's Tom Bedford and Nichola Dudman of Beaumont won silver medals, but of the ten local athletes in action, Crowley stole the show.

He said: 'It has to be the best moment of my life so far. I knew I had a pretty good chance going into the competition, but you never know how well you are going to jump.

Crowley went into the championships ranked second in his age group in England and was in the silver medal spot going into the closing stages of a tight competition.

He cleared 1.96m at the second attempt and was finally celebrating a golden display after clearing 1.99m, a distance that proved too much for Adam Gallie of Derbyshire, Daniel Leonard of Buckinghamshire and fourth-placed Theolonious Casey of Surrey.

It was case of third time lucky for the St Albans Godfrey Davis star, who picked up silver at Exeter in 1998, only to suffer heartache at Bury St Edmonds last year.

He said: 'Two years ago I got silver and probably went to Bury St Edmonds a bit spoilt. Twelve qualified from the pools and I finished 13th, which was a big disappointment.

'But I made a good start to this season which helped. I have just finished my GCSE's and had to put a lot of work into those, so the athletics tailed off a bit.

'Once they were over I started jumping well again and felt pretty good going into the championships. I was delighted to get the gold after missing out before.'

There was also a gold medal for St Albans pole vaulter Ellie Spain, although as a pupil at Uppingham School, she was part of the Leicestershire team.

In all ten athletes from St Albans and Harpenden were part of Hertfordshire's most successful side for years.

As well as the seven gold medals, our athletes returned from Sheffield with five silvers and five bronzes.

There were also more trophies as Hertfordshire won the Intermediate Boys, Senior Boys, and Intermediate Girls competitions.

On top of that, six athletes, including Crowley, Bedford and Dudman have been selected for international honours.

t For full report, pictures and all the results from Sheffield, turn to Page 21.