THE power throws events are having a purple patch in junior athletics in Essex at the moment and leading the way is Grays’ Katie Head.

The 14-year-old has already been crowned English Schools junior girls hammer champion this summer and last weekend she broke the all-time British under-15 record on her way to winning a gold medal at the Southern Championships.

She launched the hammer 56.89m at Crystal Palace to win the under-15 girls title, smashing the previous British best, set six years ago, by more than a metre-and-a-half.

She will now be hoping to wrap up a magnificent season with another gold medal at the English Under-15 Championships in Bedford next weekend.

Another one of the clutch of promising throwers is Rayleigh’s Gabrielle Quigley who also struck gold at the Southern Championships.

The 14-year-old FitzWimarc School pupil, ranked fifth in the UK, won the under-15 girls discus with a throw of 32.33m.

Quigley was also sixth in the shot put with a best effort of 10.11m.

Southend AC’s Billy Praim-Singh was fifth in the under-17 men’s hammer competition at the Southerns with 56.89m while Basildon AC’s Olivia Bullis was ninth in the under-17’s hammer with the second best throw of her life (40.73m).

On the track at Crystal Palace, Basildon AC’s Mason Webb continued his impressive summer season with a gold medal in the 3,000m.

Webb controlled a tactical race and then showed his closing speed to win by more than 10 seconds, crossing the line in 9m 51.76s.

Southend High School for Girls’ Michelle Hughes added to the gold medal she won at the English Schools Championships for the 300m hurdles with a Southern gold.

She clocked 44.27s for the victory in what proved to be a busy day for Hughes as she was also sixth in the 80m hurdles final (12.04s) and seventh in the 200m (26.23s).

Thurrock Harriers’ Hayley Instance recorded a new personal best of 2m 33.83s to win the a bronze medal in the under-13 girls 800m, while Billericay’s Connie Forman was 11th in the under-15 girls long jump (4.81m) and ran 13.66s in the 100m which wasn’t quite good enough to make the final.

Thurrock Harriers’ Joe Winn was fifth in the under-17 men’s high jump with a best clearance of 1.85m.