ATHLETICS: IN THE final round of this year's Young Athletes' League, Wirral AC boys team clinched their place in the auxillary final.

The match at Leeds saw the lads finish second behind Gateshead, while the girls team were fourth, missing out on the points they needed to reach the final, with the combined team finishing fifth overall.

In the under 17 boys, several key members were missing with the only A-team winner being Anthony Gartland who threw 41.63m in the javelin.

In the under 15 age group, Chris Smith was a double winner with grade one times in the 400m (52.8secs) and the 800m (two mins 4.6 secs).

Nathan Griffiths made it a clean sweep in the 400m, winning the B event, while Tom Madden won the 1500m in four mins 34 secs.

Wirral won both the A and B strings in the 80m hurdles and the hammer, Tom Silverwood (12.6secs) and Andrew Burgess (13.8secs) on the track and Matthew Gahan (32.52m) and M Williamson (21.66m) in the field.

This is a strong age group and Wirral also won both relays with 48.5secs in the 4X100m and 3.50.9 for the 4X400m, seven seconds ahead of the second team.

For the under 13s, Craig Dolan was a double winner, taking both the 200m in 27.3secs and the long jump with a leap of 4.46m. Josh Griffiths had another good run in the 800m, winning it in a time of two mins 26.9secs.

There was a clean sweep for the girls in the 80m hurdles at under 17 level, Christine Waters winning the A race in 11.9secs and Jo Kirby winning the B race in 12.2secs.

For the under 15 girls, English Schools winner Helen Asher was again in fine form, winning the 75m hurdles in 11.4secs and taking second in the 100m.

In the under 13s, the only winner was Sophie Mitchell who won the B 70m hurdles in 13.3secs, but there were second places for Stephanie Blackwell in the A hurdles and Stephanie Edge in the 1200m.

For the girls, this was the end of the year's competition, but the boys go on to the final at the end of August in Birmingham's Alexander Stadium.

Meanwhile the fourth match in the Junior League programme was held at the Bebington Oval with the junior men finishing fifth and the women third.

Overall - with one match remaining - the men are in fifth and the women are in fourth.

For the junior men, David Bulley had three wins - in the shot (12.47m), javelin (41.25m) and the discus (33.38m). On the track Craig Kelly was third in the 400m.

For the women, Christina Waters won the 100m hurdles in 14.9secs and then took second in the 100m and fourth in the javelin. nFor anybody interested in track and field, cross country, road running or fell running, a place is open at Wirral AC. Based at Bebington Oval, club nights are on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. For further details contact club secretay Leo Carroll on 608 4647.