Local athletes were in top form at the West Yorkshire Schools AA Championships, held at Thornes Park Athletics Centre, Wakefield. Seventeen medals were won with at least one from every age group contested.

Many of these athletes will now be selected to represent West Yorkshire in the English Schools AA Championships at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham between July 9-10.

Becoming proud West Yorkshire champions were Ian Clarke of Skyrac AC in the senior boys' 1500 metres in 4.14.0; Nick Howard (Skyrac) in the senior boys' 2000 metres steeplechase in 6.12.5; Guiseley's Emma Moutrie (Leeds City AC) in the senior girls' 100 metres hurdles in 16.1secs and the senior girls' long jump with a leap of 5.50 metres; Cookridge's James Sleigh (Leeds City AC) in the 100 metres hurdles in 15.0 secs; Ilkley's James Heaton (Leeds City) in the intermediate boys' high jump with 1.77 metres; Menston St Mary's pupil Jodie Gregorcyzk (Leeds City AC) in the intermediate girls' 1500 metres in 4.56.3; Laura Flemming (Leeds City AC) in the intermediate girls' high jump with 1.65 metres; Latoya Maynard (Skyrac AC) in the junior girls' 100 metres in 13.0 secs; and Danielle Carr (Leeds City AC) in the junior girls' 200 metres in 26.6 secs.

Other local medal winners were: senior girls 800m silver Guiseley's Laura Kirk (Skyrac) 2.25.5; hammer silver Benton Park's Amy Howard (Bingley), 42.74m.

Intermediate boys 1500m bronze Alex Davy (Leeds City) 4.25.3; pole vault silver Menston St Mary's Tom Wagner (Leeds City) 3m.

Intermediate girls' high jump bronze Addingham's Jennifer Hopkinson (Bingley Harriers) 1.49m.

Junior boys' 800m bronze Otley Prince Henry's Louis Christoforou (Leeds City AC) 2.13.8.

Young Athletes League

While Leeds City AC's seniors battled it out at Gateshead, the club's National Young Athletes League team faced its most difficult fixture of the five match series of the Northern Premier Division against Liverpool and Sale Harriers.

Despite some tremendous performances, the Leeds youngsters finished third behind these two very powerful clubs but well ahead of Wakefield Harriers & AC.

Outstanding for Leeds City was Danielle Carr of Menston St Mary's School. She won the U-15 girls' 300m in the excellent time of 41.9s and then went on to finish second in the 200m in 26.8s.

Schoolmate Jodie Gregorcyzk had a good race in the U-17 girls' 1500m, setting a personal best of 4.51.9 for second place. Louis Christoforou of Prince Henry's School, Otley, made an impressive club debut and duly won the U-15 boys' 800m in 2.15.5.

Other local athletes who competed for Leeds were: U-17 boys 100m hurdles A second James Sleigh 14.7s; high jump A fourth James Sleigh 1.55m; pole vault A third Tom Wagner of Menston St Mary's 3.30m; long jump B second James Sleigh 5.60m.

U-15 boys' 400m A third Louis Christoforou 61.1s; 80m hurdles B third Ben Sleigh 15.6s; high jump B fourth Ben Sleigh 1.25m; javelin B second Ben Sleigh 28.01m.

U-15 girls' 800m B third Jessica Best 2.31.1; javelin B second Jessica Best 15.88m.

U-13 boys' 75m hurdles A second Menston St Mary's Matt Wagner 13.2s; high jump A second Matt Wagner 1.35m; long jump A second Matt Wagner 4.66m.

County call-ups

for Airienteers

Ten junior runners from Airienteers - the orienteering club for Leeds and Bradford - have been called up for the Yorkshire squad to run in the Inter-County championships to be held in the East Midlands on June 25-26.

The event will include individual and relay races and Yorkshire are hoping to better their third place of last year. Joe Mercer, Ben Stevens, and Alistair Everett run at M18 level, Jack Wood and Hector Haines at M16, George Stevens, Sam Brown, and Robert Kelly at M14, Victoria Stevens at W16 and Chloe Haines at W14.

Airienteers have the largest representation of any Yorkshire club - as befitting the national junior club champions.

Meanwhile, Airienteers held their final District event of the season last Sunday at Meanwood and Adel, north Leeds, an event which also incorporated the Yorkshire Schools championships. The first five runners home in the Schools championships were:

White course - Joe Woodley (Guiseley St Oswalds), Michael Adams (Hallam Primary), Daniel Calvert (Calverley School), Tom Stock-Caldwell (Adel St John's), Ben McMurdo (Adel Primary).

Yellow course - Joey Sarfm (Cragg Vale), Cerys Jones (Glenaire Primary), Thomas Clarke, Mark Williams and Harriet Morley (all Thornton Dale).

Orange course - Charlotte Myers (Huntington), Daniel Bennett, Matthew Clark and Matthew Jackson (all Lady Lumley's).

Light Green course - Beth Emberton (Calder High), Ben Scarf (Calder High), Sam Brown (Woodhouse Grove), Keiran Garnett (Brayton College), Amy Brown (Brayton College).

Green course - Stuart Hooton (Joseph Rowntree), Adam Hegarty (Archbishop Holgate), Heather Percy (Lady Lumley's).

Blue course - Alistair Everett (Ermysteds), Oystein Langberg (York College).

In the District event, Ruth Ker (W35) from Airienteers had a great run winning the 4.8km Green course by over four minutes and averaging under eight minutes per km in a tough area with significant climb.

Ruth beat off many men runners including David Alcock (M21), Andy Kelly (M45), Robert Ker (M65), and Robert Kelly (M14) all of whom had top ten finishes for Airienteers out of the 60 runners.

On the 6.4km Blue course, George Stevens (M14) continued his impressive form winning in just over 55 minutes whilst Victoria Stevens (W16), Peter Jones (M45), Frank Kew (M55), Bruce Woodley (M40) and Nicholas Jones (M45) were in the top ten in a field of over 50 runners.

In the longest course (Brown 9.1km), Ian Nixon (M21) - runner-up at Elite level in the recent Scottish championships - cruised round in just over 62mins, a full seven minutes in front of Charlie Adams from Sheffield, and averaging under 7min/km in the process.

Maurice Calvert (M45), Ben Stevens (M18), Steve Watkins (M35) and Ian Marshall (M35) were all prominent for Airienteers.

Details of up-coming events at this friendly club can be found at www.aire.org.uk.

Family double

Andrew and Bethany Staniland of Horsforth enjoyed a family double at the dual AAA's of England and North of England Combined Events Championships at the weekend. These were held at Tynedale Athletics Stadium, Hexham.

Andrew won the U-20 men's decathlon and Bethany was victorious in the U-20 women's heptathlon in the North of England Championships. The Leeds City AC pairing were also placed highly in the AAA's Championships with Andrew finishing second, just 188 points behind the winner, and Bethany was in fourth place.

Eighteen year-old Andrew, in his second year of three in the Under-20 men's age group, was, however, thwarted in his efforts to score 7,000 points, the total needed for the European Junior Championships. Severe cramp forced him to withdraw from the pole vault, the eighth event, with the bar still only at 3.75m. He has a best of 4.10m.

Sensibly, he only took one throw in the javelin (800g), the ninth event, and reached 47.68m off a two strides approach. Not wishing for a more serious injury he did not finish the 1500m but ran only five metres of it just so he could record an overall score.

Nevertheless, he still scored 6,340 points to come away with national silver and regional gold medals. As a result, he has been selected to represent Great Britain Under-20's in the combined events international match against Russia, Germany and France at the end of July.

Day one had gone well with the 100m (11.03s), long jump (7.31m), 6kg shot putt (13.31m), high jump (1.90m) and 400m (53.18s), and he was in the AAA's lead at the half way stage.

Day two began damp and got wetter, reaching monsoon proportions for most of the afternoon.

Before the pole vault, Andrew had also registered 15.94s for the 110m senior height hurdles and 40.79m for the discus (1.75kg) in a paddling pool of a circle.

Seventeen year-old Bethany, in her first year of three as an Under-20 woman, had a heptathlon far better than expected. She scored 4,561 points and set two personal bests and equalled another along the way.

The first two events in the heptathlon, the hurdles and the high jump, are the difficulties for Bethany but she went down the new 100m hurdles in a PB of 16.55s.

She then equalled her PB in the high jump with 1.51m. An 11.51m shot putt (4kg) and 26.21s for the 200m saw her move into the top half of the field after day one.

Next day's long jump was only 5m but with all the girls down on their best in the dreadful conditions, it was satisfactory.

There followed a personal best in the javelin (600g) of 37.10m and a 2 mins.29.29s for the 800m rounded off an excellent weekend.

Bethany now has to wait to see if she has made the Great Britain Under-20 team of four for the combined events international match but is guaranteed a place in the England Under-20 women's team for the British Isles Combined Events Cup match in early September.

Skyrac AC

Last year, courtesy of this newspaper, Graham Breeze was presented with a pair of INOV-8 Mudroc 290 fell shoes to test against the Walsh: the historic choice of fellrunners.

Raced in 'straight from the box' the new shoe was a revelation in comfort. However, with its revolutionary high tech design INOV-8 could not get everything right first time and early models could develop stitching faults.

The makers responded to feedback from runners and revised the construction of both the heel and toe areas and the signs are that the INOV-8 brand could now become the fell/trail shoe of choice.

As for Graham? With 12 First V60 victories within the last two months it is clear that the one thing not holding him back is his footwear!

Other Skyrac runners have been in the prizes recently. The first Apperley Bridge Canter along road, track and towpath attracted 241 runners and was won by Ian Fisher wearing his Idle AC vest in 31.00.

For Skyrac Peter Rawnsley was 58th (42.17) and First V55, Alan Bye 63rd (42.43) and First V60 but after last week's victory Duncan Asquith could only manage 15th and 2nd V45 (36.39) with Peter Wade 94th in 45.05. However, Duncan was back in the prizes at the Harewood Chase 10K, won by Phil Livermore (Abbey RR) in 33.24, by finishing 8th and First V45 in 34.51. Alan Bye finished 69th in 42.59.

Racer or jogger, all are welcome at Skyrac via 01943 874046 or www.skyrac.co.uk