Toby Conibear of Yate & District AC was on international duty again this weekend, this time in Dublin in the Youth Nations Cup. England were competing against Ireland and Toby came away with the bronze medal, throwing for the first time as an under-18 athlete, writes Stuart Nunn.

The two hammer throwers who beat him were relative unknowns, having not competed at English Schools. Toby and his coach, Matt Spicer, were delighted with his result, especially as he can look forward to another year in this age group.

On Sunday, Yate athletes were in action with colleagues from Bristol & West AC in the last fixture of the Midland League, Division One. Leading in the division, they had high hopes of securing the title. After a sometimes thrilling afternoon’s competition, they were delighted to come out well ahead of Birchfield Harriers, their main rivals. The joint Bristol and Yate team is now Midlands champions.

In the men’s sprints, Yate athletes Dan Brooks, Isaac Cory, Ben Wells and Rob Phillips were up against the Birchfield sprint specialists. Dan stormed to a win in the 100m in 10.70 secs, while Isaac in B race took a good third place. In the 200m, Ben Wells was second in 21.83 secs, and Dan won the B race just one hundredth of a second slower. The four of them were up against a good Tamworth team in 4x100m relay, with Dan bringing them home just short of the win.

Dan’s brother, Adam, went in the high jump and, as he has done most of the season, cleared two metres for a good win. Club-mate David Thomas took the B event for maximum points.

With Toby on international duty, Owen Merrett and coach Matt Spicer took on the hammer. For under-17 Owen, throwing the senior hammer was a challenge, but he was good enough for third place, throwing farther than his coach, who won the B event.

In the 800m, Abdi Hasan ran his usual race, accelerating away from the opposition over the last 300m for a good win in 1:56.51 secs. The 1500m was a thriller, with two Yate athletes, Greg Hayward and Adam Wilson were up against very good Birchfield runners, but held their own right to the final lap where they had to concede but scored two good second places.

Matt Muggeridge is recovering slowly from illness, but here scored good results in the field, winning the javelin and coming second in the triple jump.

On the women’s side there was a good result in the B 800m race, which Kate Howard won in a good time of 2:07.76 secs. In the 400m Katie Robbins broke the club’s record in 57.43 secs, coming second only a couple of metres behind the Cannock runner. Hannah Lewis was a winner in the pole vault and Maria Townsend in the javelin.