THE ENGLISH Schools Championships last weekend.

Team Avon were allowed forty athletes and selected nine members of Yate and District Athletic Club. Team Wiltshire also selected one Yate Athletic Club member.

During a very tough two days, Team Avon returned home with three silver medals, all won within three hours of each other on the second day.

One of those silvers was won by Yate’s Brimsham Green School student, Toby Conibear, in the Junior Boys Hammer Throw, with a national standard throw of 49.88m. Back in fifth position at the halfway point of the competition, with a distance of 43.88m, Conibear knew he had to do something special to justify his second place UK U15 ranking status and he didn’t disappoint.

In the fifth round, he jumped in to the second spot and ensured a nervous end to the competition.

Interestingly, and perhaps rather tellingly, three events had two Yate and District athletes competing at the same time.

Joining Toby in the Junior Boys Hammer was Owen Merrett. Competing for Wiltshire, Owen’s best throw came in his third, and final, round when his effort of 33.19m gave him 13th place.

In the Senior Girls 1500m final, Yate AC members Hannah Hobbs and Ellie Wallace raced in a very strong field of twelve athletes, where an exceptional performance was required in order to medal.

Ranked as the 15th U20 in the UK, Hobbs finished an excellent sixth place with a national standard time of 4:32.84 mins.

Four seconds behind Hobbs in eleventh place was team-mate, Ellie Wallace with a time of 4:36.04 mins.

In the Senior Boys High Jump final, Yate athletes Adam Brooks and Jack Moore were against the Wiltshire and UK U20 number one Tom Gale. Gale won but Brooks managed to equal his PB of 1.97m and finished a creditable seventh.