The excellent season being enjoyed by Yate and District Athletic Club continued on Sunday with a second win in the junior section of the Youth Development League.

Winning at home as they did a month ago is one thing: to win away when their most dangerous opponents are at home is quite another. Despite poor weather and a number of important absentees through illness on the girls side, the Yate youngsters came out winners by a clear 35 points over Team Bath.

The lesson that full teams win matches has been well learned and the boys fielded a team in which the only gaps were in the pole vault and the club’s pole vaulters are gaining in confidence with every practice.

The throwers showed the way with seven out of eight first places in the under-15s and three out of four in the under-13s. Of those, Liam Hillier in the discus and Max Lambert in the javelin threw personal bests. There were double firsts in the under-13 long jump, thanks to Myles Joseph and Adam Nolan and the under-15 800m, through Abdi Hasan and Greg Hayward.

The girls also played a strong role in the victory. The match started with a double first in the under-13 70m hurdles, where Willa Gibba and Fiona Barkley looked particularly strong. In the high jump there were double firsts from Emily John and Amelia Long (u15) and Fiona Barkley and Isabel Dickenson (u13).

The races that stood out were Hasan’s win in the 800m, where he overcame a very strong Bath lad in a very good time of 2:06.7; and the under13 girls 1200m, where newcomer Poppy Clarke obliterated the field from the gun and finished a good 100m clear of her nearest rival. Her time of 3:55.3 showed that here was a young athlete with a great future.

The match ended with the under15 boys 4x300m relay. The team of Hasan, Hillier, Isaac Cory and Archie Davies-Grant stormed clear and left the rest struggling a long way behind.

Other Yate Winners: Amelia Honor u13 800m (2:46.1); Emily Whitaker u15 1500m (5:11.8); Myles Joseph u13 100m (14.2); Adam Nolan u13 200m 30.4); James Viner u13 javelin (28.66m).

Match score: Yate 624; Team Bath 587.5; Bristol & West 534; Nth Devon 479.5; Worcester 430; Forest of Dean 351; Baelnau Gwent 306