IN the upper age group of the Youth Development League, which is for under-17 and under-20 athletes, Yate and District AC is part of Team Avon.

They currently compete in the Premier Division of the League and until last Sunday were leading it.

At Yeovil there were some excellent performances from the Yate athletes but, on the day, Cardiff were just too strong and took the league match.

Because of the way the league works, they also win the season and will go into the national final.

Team Avon, meanwhile, will go into the paper match to pick the remaining teams for the final.

Stand-out performance from a Yate athlete came from Yvette Westwood in the under-20 sprints.

Her times of 12.27secs in the 100m and 25.29secs in the 200m were too good for the opposition and she looked very good indeed in winning both races.

On the male side, it was in the 400m that Yate athletes shone. Josh Snook and Ben Wells won both A and B races in fine style.

Josh has been threatening to break the fifty seconds barrier for a while now.

In the last Midland League match he did it – but with a running start so it cannot count.

Here, he did it by a good margin, coming home in 49.75secs.

Ben had to fight harder in his race but his time of 53.3secs was good enough to win the points.

It’s been several years since Yate and District had any pole vaulters.

This is beginning to be put right with a small training group working hard at this most technical of events.

On Sunday it began to pay off with a win for Lucy Conibear in the under-20 event.

Her winning height of 2.45m may say more about her opponents and the level of vaulting across the region than her own current development, but it is a good sign for the future.

Relays are always a good way for matches to end and Sunday’s was no exception.

The Avon 4x400m squad contained both Yate 400m runners, with Josh coming home ahead of the nearest rival.