HUNTS Athletic Club continued their excellent start to the season, with a haul of 12 gold medals at the Cambridgeshire County Championships on Saturday. Star performers for the club included Christian Roberts, who easily won the U20 men s 800m, setting a

HUNTS Athletic Club continued their excellent start to the season, with a haul of 12 gold medals at the Cambridgeshire County Championships on Saturday.

Star performers for the club included Christian Roberts, who easily won the U20 men's 800m, setting a personal best.

Roberts became the second athlete at the club to clock under two minutes for the distance, despite coming under little pressure while winning by 20 seconds.

Hard work paid off when Matt Leadbitter, who only returned to the track last September after being out of the sport for over two years, claimed second place in the 400m.

He has undergone a hard winter of training, including intensive circuit and weight training, hill running, and even pulling tyres around the running track to build strength and stamina.

Leadbitter has set personal bests already this season and finished just 0.6secs behind Irish international runner Tom Carey on Saturday.

Wayne Dubose, who coaches Roberts and Leadbitter, hailed their achievements and said the best may be yet to come.

"They have both jumped right into this season and are running their fastest ever times, so we are hoping they can carry on getting faster throughout the summer," he said.

"The conditions on Saturday were also very windy, so we think the longer distance runners could have been even faster in better conditions."

It was also a breakthrough weekend for one of the club's youngest competitors, 12-year-old Dennis Penny-Toure, who picked up double gold in the U13 Boys' 75m hurdles and long jump, and a silver medal in the 100m.

Dubose said: "Dennis showed he could be a real star of the future for us."

Hunts AC will travel to Newham this weekend, near the site of the Olympic stadium, for a fixture in the Men's Southern League. They will take on one of their main rivals for the two league promotion spots, Havering.

Dubose said: "We think they may have the edge, judging by some of their results to date, but we are very hopeful of another strong showing."

Chloe Edwards also had a golden weekend as she won the senior women's shot putt and discus, while her brother Jonathan picked up the U17 men's discus title.

He extended by a foot the club record he set last week in the hammer, but it was only good enough for second.

Paul Hayball bagged two silver medals, in the javelin and shot putt, in which he set a personal best.

James Downing won the U15 boys' 1,500m, Helen West took the U17 women's 3,000m and Faye McLellan the U15 title over the same distance in an inaugural U15 girls' club record.

Anya Rodriguez claimed two medals, with gold in the U13 girls' high jump and bronze in the 100m. Bethany Bainbridge took the U15 girls' pole vault title, and Emma Woodroffe brushed off a disrupted winter of training to win the javelin gold medal for the fourth year in a row, this time in the U17 women's category.

The strong showing from the juniors followed success for Hunts AC veterans in the midweek meet at Peterborough.

Athlete of the Match Peter Downhill won the 400m and took third in the 100m, while Mike Scott claimed the M40+ 1,500m, and Shane Hunt won the M50+ 1,500.

Amanda Hollands won the women's shot by more than two feet, before Downhill and Scott teamed up with Hanno Fischer and Richard Phelan to win the medley relay (200m, 200m, 400m and 800m).