IT was a good weekend for hurdles specialists Khai-Riley Laborde and Hayley McLean.

Both picked up county gold medals on Saturday before heading to the Bedford International Games on Monday and producing top performances.

Purfleet’s Riley-Laborde, 18, won the under-20 110m hurdles Essex title on Saturday in 14.11s and returned later in the day to come third in the flat 100m in a personal best time of 10.90s.

The Palmer’s College student then went up to Bedford to compete against some of the country’s best sprint hurdlers and blasted to another PB of 14.07s to finish in second place.

McLean, from Stanford-le-Hope, backed up her win over the flat 400m at the Essex Championships with a win over a strong field in the 400m hurdles at Bedford.

The 18-year-old took victory with her second fastest time ever, 57.90s.

There were plenty of other good performances at the county championships from Thurrock-based athletes. Tom Richardson, from Stanford-le-Hope, took gold in both the under-20 men’s 800m (1m 58.10s) and 1,500m (4m 05.45s), which added to his win over 3,000m on the first day of the championships, gave him an impressive middle-distance treble.

In the throws events, Thomas Head, from Grays, threw a PB of 60m to win the under-20 men’s hammer, while his sister, Katie, was second in the under-15 girls hammer (46.75m).

Amir Williamson was another to hit gold as he launched the hammer 66.13m to win the senior men’s event, while Thurrock Harriers’ Duane Jibunoh took a silver in the men’s under-20 discus (43.52m).

Young Harrier James Pearson pocketed a gold in the boys’ under-15 shot-putt (14.76m) to go along with the one he won for the pentathlon on day one of the championships, and he also went on to win a silver in the javelin (39.98m).

Staying with the javelin, Sam Harrison, from Tilbury, won silver in the senior men’s event with a throw of 48.29m.

Shannon Jameson (Thurrock Harriers) won gold in the under-17 women’s triple jump with a leap of 9.50m, while in the long jump, Aveley’s Josh Olawore was victorious with a best distance of 6.80m.

Young William Edwards School sprinter Karl Johnson blasted to gold in the under-13 boys 100m, winning in a time of 12.68s, while Aveley’s Modupe Shokunbi took the honours in the under-15 girls 100m, clocking 12.12s.

Thurrock Harriers’ Natalie LeBeau cleared 1.30m to win the senior women’s high jump.

Tilbury’s Robbie Clarricoats came home with two hurdles medals from the weekend, finishing second behind Riley-Laborde in the under-20 men’s 110m hurdles (14.48s) and then running strongly over the 400m hurdles to finish third in 56.58s.

Another hurdler to have a good weekend was Thurrock Harrier Chay Clark who won medals in the under-17 women’s 80m hurdles and the 300m hurdles.

Clark finished second in the 300m hurdles with a time of 47.98s and was third in the sprint hurdles (12.33s).

There were bronze medals too for Harriers’ Madeleine Cannell in the under-17 women’s discus (26.05m) and Kira Meredith in the under-17 women’s 3,000m (12m 21.47s).

Harriers’ super-veteran Sue Lawrence had another successful weekend, winning the shot-putt (10.44m) and hammer (36.56m) finishing second in the javelin (29.80m) and third in the discus (35.39m).

Lawrence’s team-mate Lynn Talbert won the veteran’s 100m (15.28s) and was second in the 300m (49.25s).

Thurrock’s sole senior male medalist was Michael Shortall whose excellent 15.7s in the 110m hurdles was good enough to take the bronze. There were two good personal bests from Ben Gibbs whose 11.03s in the 100m showed a fine return to form while Jack Farmer recorded 51.99 in the under 20 400m. l David Johnson finished 26th in the 600 starters at the Hatfield Broad Oak 10k, better than his position was an excellent personal best of 36m28s.