THE TEAM Avon campaign in the Youth Development League continued on Sunday with a trip to Cardiff.

Having won the first match of the season, hopes were high, but the home team were a more formidable proposition than Swansea.

By the end of the afternoon, Team Avon were confirmed as the leading club in the division, in spite of being beaten on the day by Cardiff.

The pole vault is always a spectacular event and here was no exception.

Yate and District AC’s Liam Hillier has come on a treat in the pole vault, thanks to the coaching from his mother.

All season, he has been threatening to break the three metre barrier. This competition looked doomed, with hurdles interfering with Liam’s opening vault.

When he was eventually able to join the event, the bar had almost reached his personal best height.

Coming in at 2.70m, he had to pull out all the stops if he wasn’t to go out before registering a height.

In the end, he cleared three metres, with centimetres to spare, allowing his mother to watch once more.

“I had a happy teenager on the journey home,” she said.

All told, 15 athletes registered personal best performances, with nearly all of the Yate athletes finishing in the first three.

Josh Snook won the under-20 men’s 400m but he was backed up in the under-17 men’s 400m by the relatively new pairing of Nathaniel Mitchell and Dylan Armstrong.

Both ran personal best times: Nathaniel in 52.20, Dylan in 54.91.

Another notable advance was Jodie Dale’s in the javelin.

She won the event by a good margin with a throw of 33.98m.

Isaac Cory also had a good afternoon with wins the B 100m and 200m. His times of 11.42 secs and 23.27 secs were his best so far.

Other under-20 winners were David Thomas in the B high jump, and Alexis Bond in the triple jump. Under-17 athletes who won their event were Ben Latham in the B pole vault, and Rhiannon Paton in the 1500m. Her time of 5:05.72secs was her best this season.

Notable also were the pairing of Abdi Hasan and Greg Hayward in the under-17 1500m. Abdi’s second place time was 4.14.98 and Greg’s was 4.35.18 – a promising performance from an athlete so young in the age group.

The overall result was: 1. Cardiff – 713 points; 2. Team Avon – 672; 3. Team Devon and Cornwall – 547; West Wales – 494.5; 5. Cheltenham and County Harriers– 490.5; 6. Swansea Harriers – 308.