Despite failing to complete the final discipline, the 800m, Epsom & Ewell Harriers’ Jacob Paul narrowly snatched the gold medal in the Surrey U15 boys’ pentathlon championship at Horsham.

The newly crowned English schools champion was lucky that nearest rival Oliver Newport, from Crawley, failed to complete the two-lap event.

Paul, 14, won the long jump (5.81m) and 80m hurdles (11.80 seconds) to build up a significant lead.

He extended his leads to almost 80 points by taking second place in the shot (11.17m), but despite second in the high jump (1.70m) saw Newport reduce that gap to 34 points with a leap of 1.76m.

As they were around 400 points clear of the rest, all they needed to do was start the 800m to secure the gold and silver medals, respectively.

Paul won with 2,374 points from Newport (2,350), Crawley’s Levy Smith (2,225) and Kingston & Polytechnic’s Matthew Elmore (2,041).

In the U17 event, Martin Lay of Epsom & Ewell took bronze (3,406), with George Thomas of Walton AC fourth (3,055).

Eleanor Hahn-Smith of Hercules Wimbledon (1,976) took bronze in the girls’ U13 section.

Mark Thomas of Walton AC took the men’s over-45 title - he was the only competitor!