WATFORD HARRIERS' womens team convincingly won their latest Southern Womens League fixture at Woodside on Saturday, June 7, edging Braintree into second place.

With a number of athletes making their debut, including Helen Gray, Claire Ricketts, Kathy Meerabux and Katie Stead, the team was well represented, with all the newcomers making a winning start.

Meanwhile, Kyla Bowen-La Grange eased to victory in the 1,500m with a time of 5.17.4, while Christine James racked up the points with a first place in the 3,000m, second in the pole vault and second in the B string 200m.

In the Under-15 Girls, Natasha Bullock won both the shot and the 1,500m, with other victories coming from Fiona Olliffe and Hannah Green.

Meanwhile, Catherine Murphy will once again be aiming to help preserve Great Britain's place among the elite European women's athletics nations next month.

Although the Hemel Hempstead-based 27-year-old 400m international failed to win selection for the individual event – the selectors have instead chosen her Shaftesbury Barnet team-mate, Commonwealth and European medallist Lee McConnell – Murphy was named in the 4x400m team when Britain's European Cup squad was revealed on Tuesday.

The event takes place in Florence on June 21 and 22, but Murphy and her team-mates will be hoping to avoid a repetition of last year's nerve-jangling climax to the competition.

The relay team – with Murphy on the lead leg – went into their race knowing they needed to produce the goods to keep Britain in Europe's top-eight.

They ultimately finished second, and were later promoted to first when Russia were disqualified.

Elsewhere, Harvey Jaquest picked up his second and third bronze medals in major championships in succesive weeks after finishing third in the 3,000m and 5,000m walk at the British Veterans Championship in Derby at the weekend.

After finishing third in the European Masters 30km Walk in the Czech Republic the previous week, Jaquest dropped distance considerably for the British Championships, but still grabbed two podium finishes.

Also competing in Derby were Watford Harriers Chris Woods and Sue Yeomans. Woods ran very well in the 1,500m, only to be outpaced on the run-in to take silver in a time of 4.14.6. Yeomans, meanwhile, competing in pole vault despite a slight achilles problem, managed 2.85m to take gold in a new championship-best performance. She then narrowly failed at 2.95m for what would have been a new British and European record.