FOR many young athletes, the South West Schools Championship in Exeter is the highlight of the season.

Some will be selected to represent their county at English Schools, but many more will climax at the regional event.

On Saturday, the weather was not kind, with a sharp wind sweeping across the track and occasional light rain.

Even so, several Yate athletes acquitted themselves well.

Certain to progress to the national championship were the two senior middle distance runners who both led their races from the gun and never looked like being caught.

In the senior girls 3,000m, Hannah Hobbs showed just how good she is by coming home the best part of a hundred metres ahead of her nearest rival.

Her time of ten minutes 10.80secs won’t have delighted her, aiming as she was for something under ten minutes.

The same could be said of Abdi Hasan, who has been chasing a time under two minutes for the 800m all season. Sooner or later, he must do it, but here it was two mins 01.45secs but was good enough to see off all the opposition with a good 15 metres to spare.

Dalis Jones has chosen to run the 1500m this season and in this race it needed a girl to run a championship best time to beat her.

Her second place time of four mins 48.44 secs was very respectable and showed how she is learning to fight back in the closing stages of a race.

Other second placings came from Nathaniel Mitchell in the inter boys 400m: his time of 52.50 secs was promising and he pushed the winner all the way to the line.

Toby Conibear and James Viner, throwing for Wiltshire, came close to winning their hammer events, though neither really challenged their personal bests.

Luke Ball in the junior boys high jump was also a few centimetres below his best height, but 1.78m is still a good result.

Third places came from Jodie Dale, throwing for Gloucestershire, in the junior girls javelin with a throw of 33m; and from Isaac Cory in the inter boys 200m with a decent time of 23.21 secs.

The following day, the third Youth Development League meeting of the season came to Yate, with the home club fighting for survival in this division.

In the event, the Welsh clubs proved too strong and Yate and District AC had to be content with fifth place.

The best Yate performance came in the under-15 boys hammer.

Owen Merrett had been bitterly disappointed by his performance in Exeter and came here to put matters right.

His best throw of over 48 metres was enough to take the event and extend his personal best considerably.