Crawley's Nick Buckfield was the only Sussex winner at the AAA Championships and World Championships trials at Birmingham.

Buckfield dominated the pole vault event and was the only athlete to clear 5.50m.

He is likely to be the only Sussex athlete to be named for Paris when the first World Championship squad is announced on Tuesday.

Cardinal Newman schoolteacher Julia Bennett took the silver medal in the high jump after clearing 1.82m.

Claire Smithson made an impressive debut with a splendid third place in the discus. The Brighton and Hove City athlete threw 52.59m to take the bronze medal.

This was an improvement on the 51.97m she threw at the European Under-23 championships in Poland.

There was another bronze medal for Sussex in the men's 800m when Crawley's Joel Kidger steamed down the home straight to take third place in 1min. 49.04sec.

In the 400m, Sean Baldock, from Hastings, placed fourth in 46.49sec. He may yet find himself nominated in the 4 x 400m relay squad for Paris.

Steyning's Sophie Hales, Andrew Robinson from Horsham and Haywards Heath's Duncan Malins missed out on medals by placing fourth.

Hales, who is still in the under-20 age group, clocked 25min.11.42sec in the 5,000m walk, Robinson chopped three seconds off his previous best in the 3,000m steeplechase in 8min.50.97sec while Malins clocked 14.03sec into a head wind for fourth place in the 110m hurdles.

Horsham Blue Star's Clare Harman reached the 100m hurdles final and ducked inside 14sec for seventh in 13.9sec.

Worthing's Rachael Odgen made the final of the 800m and clocked a personal best 2min.06.79sec for seventh place. Brighton's Tim Bayley also chalked up a personal best in the 800m but his 1min.50.44sec time failed to take him through to the final.