Rugby & Northampton completed a memorable victory to win the Midlands Regional final of the National Young Athletes League at Stoke, leaving arch rivals Birchfield Harriers trailing in their wake.
Strong efforts from Notts AC and Swansea gave them third and fourth places respectively with Cardiff, City of Stoke, Cheltenham and Nene Valley Harriers completing the results. The top two clubs now progress to the National Final in September, to be held in Manchester.
Despite having a number of athletes on holiday, there were several club records broken and over 40 personal bests recorded.
The under 17 men performed brilliantly with club records set in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. In the sprint event Caleb Downes, Hugo Thompson-Brown, Luke Townsend and Ciaran Wardle won in an excellent 43.7s.
In the longer event Downes was joined by Clinton Osoba-George, Tom Charteress and Patrick Mills and they took a massive six seconds from the previous club record, winning in 3m 35.9s.
In the individual A string events there were victories for Ciaran Wardle in the 200m, 22.5s, Luke Townsend in the 100m hurdles, 13.6s and Patrick Mills, 400m hurdles, 57.5s.
There were silver medals for Clinton Osoba-George, a PB of 11.1s in the 100m and Lloyd Humphries, another PB of 12m 71cm in the triple jump.
Bronze medals were won by Patrick Mills in the 400m, 53.2s, Luke Townsend in the long jump, with a leap of 6m 5cm and Cameron MacLean, a PB of 26m 87 in the hammer.
In the B events there were gold medals for Hugo Thompson-Brown, a PB of 11s in the 100m, Caleb Downes, a dominant 22.9s in the 200m and Tom Charteress 54.2s in the 400m.
Silver medals were won by Adam Wright, 2m 4.8s in the 800m and 5m 15.5s in the steeplechase, Harry Hughes 9m 57.2s in the 3,000m, Lloyd Humphries, 5m 40cm in the long jump and Theo Walkley-Bartlett, 22m 17cm in the hammer. There were three bronze medals for Luke Bromley who recorded 14.5s in the 100m hurdles, 63.1s in the 400m hurdles and a PB of 11m 12cm in the triple jump.
The under 17 women were particularly hard hit by absentees. In the A events there were bronze medals for Megan Exley, 29m 67cm in the javelin, Grace Adeyinka, a PB of 10m 35cm in the triple jump and Tilly Lea, a PB of 12m 9.7s in the 3,000m.
In the B events there were silver medals for Bethan Goddard, 5m 11.8s in the 1,500m, Megan Exley, a PB of 44.2s in the 300m, Alison Inwood, a PB of 12m 37.9 in the 3,000m and Hatti Vessey, 8m 78cm in the triple jump. There was also a bronze medal for Molly Barnett, who recorded 14s in the 100m.
The under 15 boys had a mixed day. English Schools Long Jump Champion Timothy Kerr-Chin comfortably took gold with a leap of 6m 21cm.
There were silver medals in A events for Kyran Wilson, 4m 29.9s in the 1,500m, Zachary Stapleton, a 11.6s PB in the 100m and a brace for Josh Arimoro who recorded 34m 27cm in the discus and a PB of 12m 11cm in the shot.
There was also a bronze in the pole vault for Tom Baillie, who cleared a PB height of 2m 20cm. In the B events there were golds for Stapleton, another PB of 24s in the 200m, Rico Ewer, a 11.7s PB in the 100m and Tom Baillie who took the shot with a PB Put of 10m 80cm.
There were silvers for Ewer in the 300m with 40.5s, Ben Musgrove, 4m 40.4s in the 1,500m Tom Cheyne, 5m 6cm in the long jump and Jonjo Fanning 2m in the pole vault. Fanning also secured bronze in the javelin with a PB throw of 27m 64cm.
The under 15 girls had another good day with a massive PB for Eleanor Broome in the long jump, leaping to 5m 45cm and fifth in the UK rankings in her first season of competition.
There was also gold for Louise Hanby who threw 27m 96cm in the javelin. There were silver medals for Kiona McLennon, an excellent PB of 9m 46cm in the Shot and a stellar run from Lily Carmichael to record 4m 55.7s in a competitive 1,500m.
There were bronze medals for Tia Clues, a PB of 1m 80cm in the Pole Vault and Louise Hanby who recorded another PB in the Discus with a throw of 25m 9cm.
It was a similar story in the B events with Eleanor Broome smashing her 100m PB to win in 12.6s.
Kirsty Goddard took gold in the 1,500m with 5m 1.2s and there was a brace of silver medals for Tia Clues, in the long jump, 4m 21cm and the javelin with a throw of 19m 18cm.
Silvers were also won by Lizzi Muzmimbiri, 7m 64cm in the shot, Kiona McLennon, 18m 77cm in the discus and Natalie Goddard in the 800m, 2m 31.8s. The 4x100m relay team of Flora Courtney, Simone Ager, Libby Lea and Sophie Henderson were beaten by the narrowest of margins by a strong Notts AC team, taking silver in 51.9s.
The under 13 boys had a tough afternoon but showed their character with several good performances.
In the A events there was an excellent silver medal for Ewan Roberts, who narrowly missed out on the club record in the 1,500m recording 4m 49.5s.
There were also silvers for Wesley Walcott, 4m 28cm in the long jump and the 4x100m squad of Joshua Faulds, Aidan Wardle, Thomas Haynes and Walcott who clocked 56.3s.
There were bronze medals for Aidan Wardle, a PB of 13.6s in the 100m, Oli Lambert, a 27.9s PB in the 200m, Thomas Haynes, 2m 33.9s in the 800m and Jay O’Leary 13.6s in the 75m hurdles.
There was more success in the B events with Adam Searle taking gold in the 1,500m in 4m 56.7s. There were also silver medals for Joe Musgrove, 2m 33.5s in the 800m, Joshua Faulds, a PB of 13.8s in the hurdles, Thomas Haynes, 4m 9cm in the Long Jump and Aidan Wardle a solid 6m 38cm in the shot.
The under 13 girls also had a character building afternoon but dug deep with several strong performances.
Milan Clues won gold in the Long Jump with 4m 18cm, but was prevented from progressing in the high jump due to events clashing.
There were excellent silver medals in the middle distance events with Poppy Carmichael clocking 2m 41.5 in the 800m and Georgia Willix recording a PB of 4.14 in the 1,200m.
In the B events, Katie Print took gold in the long jump with 4m 14cm and Olivia White won the 1200m in a promising 4m 25.3s.