Emma Perkins has proved one of the brightest prospects on the Sussex athletic scene this past track season.

She won under-17 high jump title in the area, national and All England Schools championships.

Emma then triumphed England in the Home Schools International in Ireland.

She said: "I'm very pleased with my season. I've done 13 high jump competitions and not been beaten in my age group. I even won the jump representing Britain against the United States in July."

The six-footer from Worthing has grit besides talent.

Her fourth place at the English Schools' under-17s Heptathlon Championships showed her character after a disappointing long jump even though she was unsatisfied at her final position.

She said: "I felt like dropping out when I had the bad long jump. I had been buoyed up by my best ever high jump of 1.78m on the first day of competition but I was unable to sustain my form on day two and seriously thought of packing up and going home because I was well below my best.

"I was pleased I was persuaded to continue."

Emma only missed a medal in the final at Hull by 60 points to underline the potential of the 16-year-old.

The Angmering schoolgirl still has another year in this age group and it built on her efforts last year when she finished second in the under-15s' pentathlon and was selected to compete for England in the Home Countries Combined Events Schools International at Glasgow.

But it came at the end of a busy season.

She said: "It has been a long season and stepping up from the five events to seven events does put a considerable strain on training as you just cannot give every event the attention it needs.

"My high jumping has been going so well this season because I have devoted most my training time to it.

"It was not really until August and I knew the All England Schools Combined Events final was just a few weeks away that I paid much attention to shot putting and javelin throwing.

"The 800m is the event most heptathletes hate and do not give much attention to it in training. I'm no different.

"When it came to Hull, I was only able to do five weeks work on the shot and javelin which was nowhere near enough time to do either event justice so I lost a lot of points in them.

"I needed to be near my best in my main events, the high and long jump and the 80m hurdles.

"I did not get off to a good start as my hurdles were a bit slower than I would have hoped but I was really on a high after my high jump of 1.78m, which was a best ever.

"The 200m was slow for me but I was in the medals overnight. I knew I needed a good long jump to stay in with a chance of a medal but 5.24m was one of my poorest jumps all season and I was really down.

"I managed to keep going and was surprised with a good throw, for me, in the javelin. But it is not an event where I score well and I was down in fourth place and I could not really pick myself up for a real effort in the 800m.

"Looking back I suppose I should not feel too bad about fourth place but it did feel like that at the time.

"It's much better to look forward and after a short rest I will be back to training. I have already planned a 12- week high jump course at Solihull as I am really looking forward to more high jumping internationals in the next track season.

"I also have to consider my studies. I take my GCSEs next year so I will be devoting most of my training time to high jumping next year. I will probably still do the hurdles and the long jump in the County Championships and the Southern Women's League but I do not plan to do the heptathlon at schools level next year.

"I may do the County Heptathlon Championships at the end of the season, but I will just not have enough time to devote to improving my weak events."

Emma is a powerful youngster who could become a major heptathlete in years to come but she does need to consider her education as well.

Next season she is still young enough to break the Sussex under-17 high jump record set by Kerry Roberts (Brighton and Hove) at 1.82m nearly 20 years ago.

Kerry, who unlike Emma, was a tall, slim bouncy jumper, made several appearances for England and Great Britain. She is the only Sussex athlete ever to jump higher than Emma.

To get Kerry's senior record of 1.85m would be a major step on her quest to become Britain's top jumper.

THE annual Haywards Heath cross country races will be at Ardingly College tomorrow, starting at 12.30pm with events for under-11s to veterans.

The season gets properly underway with the first of this season's Sussex Cross country League events next Saturday.

It will be staged near Goodwood Racecourse and organised by Chichester, starting at 12.00 noon. It will have events for under-13s to veterans.

The second series of league races will be at the Thomas Bennett School at Crawley, while the third are at Lancing Manor on December 15. All these events start at noon.

The final races, which were lost last season because of the foot and mouth crisis, will be at Bexhill Down on March 2.

Entries are accepted on the day for each fixture, with more than 200 runners per meeting.