It has been a brilliant week for Brighton and Hove thrower Claire Smithson.

Seven days ago she threw a season's best at Loughborough when representing the Great Britain junior team.

On Wednesday she bowed out of the Brighton and Hove Schools Championships with a discus record of 47.65m.

Then on Saturday at the South of England Under-20 Championships at Watford Smithson made a major breakthrough, not only retaining her titles but setting personal bests in shot and discus.

She said: "I've trained really hard during the winter.

"On Saturday we got held up on the M25 and at one time I thought I was miss the shot event. We arrived just ten minute before the event started and I suppose my pent up energy was released. My first effort was my best of the season and only just short of my best ever.

"Then I was able to relax a little, had several efforts just below 14m, then came the big one and it soared out to 14.68m, more than half a metre further than I had ever thrown before.

"I had been throwing the discus quite well in training but not getting the results in competition. But after my shot at Watford I was certainly more relaxed and had several throws in excess of 50m, then the big one out to 52.80m. Both my shot and discus marks bettered the standards required for the European Under-20 Championships in Italy in July.

Smithson's discus effort is the furthest ever thrown by a British 17-year-old old.

She already holds the Sussex discus record and her shot lifts her to second place on the Sussex senior all time list.

Smithson's Brighton and Hove clubmate Samantha Redd was also in fine form in the javelin at Loughborough, finishing fourth with a personal best 46.36m to improve her own Sussex Under- 20 record by more than one metre.

Former Sussex 10,000m track champion Geoff Hill, from the Phoenix club, showed his liking for the flat fast course when he won the Bognor Prom 10km road race.

Hill was challenged by Brighton and Hove veteran Rob Shannon for the early part of the race but he could not match the pace of the younger man in the closing stages and the Phoenix runner eventually finished nearly 200m clear in a nippy 31min. 55sec.

Hussain Ibrahim (Brighton and Hove) had a convincing victory in the Hailsham 10-mile road race.

Ibrahim has made quite an impression since moving to Sussex last year and is gradually establishing himself as one of the top distance runners.

He broke clear of Dan Anderson (Hastings) over the last couple of miles to win by more than 100m in 55min.37sec.