TEENAGER Kristian Brown could not have dreamt for a competition as perfect as the English Schools octathlon final.

The 16-year-old, from Rayleigh, set eight new personal bests on his way to achieving an amazing score of 5,494 points that saw him win the gold medal.

On top of that, the victory – which was the sixth best score by an under-17 athlete in British history – meant he has won his first England vest and will compete for his country at an international pentathlon competition in Glasgow in December.

“I have been working on my fitness and strength and training had been going well in the build up to the competition,” said Brown, who competes for Basildon AC. “I managed to peak at the right time.”

He certainly did that.

Brown went into first place after just the second of the eight events and never looked back.

“I was fifth in the first event, the long jump,” he said. “But then I threw a PB in the discus which put me in the lead and I managed to stay there.”

Brown, who left FitzWimarc School last summer and is now a student at Seevic College, said he was not phased by the pressure of leading the competition.

“I was not really thinking about it,” he said. “In some ways it is better because when you are second or third there is that pressure to chase the leader and I didn’t have that.

“I knew I was in good shape going into the competition and my main aim was to get into the top four to win an England vest. I knew I had half a chance of winning it but to actually do it was brilliant. I was really happy.”

Brown’s final scorecard read long jump 6.20m, discus 40.61m, javelin 60.75m, 400m 51.93s, 100m hurdles 13.98s, high jump 1.75m, shot putt 12.95m and 1,500m 4m 41.02s.

“To get eight PBs was fantastic,” said Brown who originally got into athletics to concentrate on his javelin throwing and was focusing on that sole discipline under a year ago.

“Last October I was throwing the javelin 65m in training and I was talking to my coach about trying to make the World Youth Championships.

“But then I dislocated my shoulder playing rugby for the school and when I eventually came back I was not quite throwing as far and started to juggle the other events.”

His javelin PB set last weekend is still pretty good. It was the fifth furthest in the country this year and he finished fifth in the individual discipline at the English Schools Championships in July. But now his focus is on multi-eventing and following in the path of another south Essex legend Dean Macey who won World Championships medals and Commonwealth Games gold in the decathlon.

Brown also led the intermediate boys Essex team to the overall winner’s prize with south Essex team-mates Robert Runicman (15th, 4,433 points) and James Regan (18th, 4,246) in the winning team.

Basildon AC duo Mae Bullman (16th, 4,128 points) and Charlotte Skeggs (17th, 4,089) were among the Essex team that finished fourth in the intermediate girls heptahlon while Southend High School for Boys Bradley Barrett (4,415 points) was 24th in the senior boys decathlon.