FIVE of the younger members of St Helens Sutton AC took part in the national under-15 years and under-17 years championships held at Birmingham an event in which you can only compete if you have reached the qualifying standard.

Highest placed club athlete was Dave Forrester whose time of 4min 14.04secs was good enough to take him into sixth place in the under-15s 1,500 metres.

The corresponding girls event saw Jourdon Cotter set a new club record of 4min 49.01secs as she finished in seventh position.

Vicky Johnson was another to finish seventh as she threw 28.70metres in the discus and backed this up with a shot put of 9.44m.

Caroline Morley ran 46.3secs in the 300m hurdles and Thaddeus Anim-Somuah ran 12.13secs in the 100m.

The Northern Inter-counties match held at the Dorothy Hyman Stadium in Cudworth, West Yorkshire saw another club record broken as Jake Robinson won the triple jump with a clearance of 13.32m.

Jessica Cretu increased her personal long jump record to 4.30m. Caroline Morley ran 47.1secs to take second place in the 300m hurdles and ran 42.94secs for third place in the flat 300m.

Emma McLatchley equalled her best of 2.30m in the pole vault and thus set a new club senior women's record. Ben Fisher's javelin throw of 57.03m was only beaten by two senior athletes with his junior opponents left well behind.

In the 1,500 metres Dave Forrester and Jourdon Cotter took second and third places in their respective 1500metres with times of 4min 21.83sec and 5min 0.80secs with Dave Twigg taking third place in his age group with a run of 4min 18.15secs.

Other club competitors were Craig Knight, 100m in 11.36secs, Thaddeus Anim-Somuah, 100m in 12.09secs, Anna Sheffield, hammer with 26.10m and Rebecca Keegan, javelin with 21.54m.

The latest Grand Prix meeting at Stretford saw Steve Mayers break the 2 minute barrier for 800m as he set a new club junior record with his time of 1min 58.74secs with Dave Forrester improving his own junior club record as he ran 2min 4.74secs.

Despite the fact that this was an extremely wet evening it was a good night for the 800m runners with all the following setting personal best times, Ian Crompton, 2min 3.68secs, Greg Williams 2min 7.41secs, and Jourdon Cotter, 2min 26.47secs. Dave Twigg improved his 1500m personal best time to 4min 11.5secs, with Barry Graney running 3000m in 10min 9.36secs, Sheru Gelati 200m in 26.23secs and Tom Rigby 1,500m in 5min 2secs.