There were some tremendous performances from the six local athletes who had made it through to the English Schools AA Championships at the Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield, over the weekend.

In the intermediate (Under-17) boys' long jump, 16 year-old Andrew Staniland (Leeds City AC and Leeds GS) exceeded his expectations with a personal best leap of 7.08m.

This earned the Horsforth athlete the silver medal with only five centimetres separating him from the winner. Andrew has now been selected to represent England in the Under- 17 British Schools International match which will be held in Cardiff on Saturday.

Laura Kirk (Skyrac AC and Guiseley School) also had an excellent championship in the intermediate girls' 800m.

Having to run two tough races to even reach the final, Laura took it all in her long stride.

In her heat she ran a comfortable 2.18.75 and in her semi-final she produced a 2.13.65 to ensure final qualification.

However, she saved her best for last and an impressive PB of 2.12.05 saw her finish in fourth place.

Laura's club-mate, Amy Howard (Benton Park School) could not quite find the form in the intermediate girls' discus that had given her a silver medal at last year's championships but she did throw a creditable 36.34m for ninth place.

In the same event, 15 year-old heptathlete Bethany Staniland (Leeds City AC and Bradford GGS), was also unable to find her best form and finished 15th with 30.22m, some four metres below her personal best.

Nevertheless, both girls will have benefitted tremendously from the experience of competing at this level.

The intermediate age group is a strong one both locally and nationally as Skyrac's Emma Moutrie discovered.

Emma is the current Yorkshire and North of England champion in the triple jump, yet a magnificent personal best of 11.07m could only bring this talented Guiseley School athlete a ninth place.

Another local discus thrower who will have gained much from the big-time experience is Bramhope's Georgina Ablett (Ashville College and Skyrac AC).

In common with her intermediate training partners, Georgina was well down on her personal best in the junior (Under-15) event and 24.95m gave her eighth place in a small field of throwers.