THERE were personal bests galore for the Blue Vest juniors at England Athletics’ national indoor championships in Sheffield.

Ben To, competing in his first nationals having set a new club record at the Northern championships, lowered his personal best at each stage of the 60m, clocking 7.52secs in the heats, 7.42s in the semi-final and 7.41s in the final – all new club records – to finish a creditable seventh overall.

Julia Winogrodzka moved up an age-group from her usual under-13 to compete as an u15 in the long jump, having easily reached the qualifying standard set.

Not to be overawed she leapt 5.13m – only 8cm outside her PB – to finish eighth against girls up to two years her senior.

Another u15 debutant Eniola Adedotun was also in fine form. He ran 7.67s in his heat to register a huge PB. His semi-final performance saw him finish eighth in 7.74s.

Taiwo Taiwo (u17) was hoping to break eight seconds for the first time. In her heat, she came third in a new PB of 7.89s and bettered it with 7.86s in her semi-final, only to finish an agonising fourth and just miss out on a place in the final.

Hannah Kelly lined up in the 60m having won gold at the Northerns and with high hopes of pushing for a medal.

She opened up in the heat, finishing second, although easing down in yet another PB of 7.69s before beating that in the semi-final with 7.63s but the winner’s 7.50s set a new championship record.

After an issue with her blocks in the final, she struggled to get away at the start and, although running 7.72s, she finished sixth.

Both Hannah and Taiwo returned to Sheffield on the Sunday to compete in the u17s' 200m. Taiwo ran strongly in her heat, with 25.58s to qualify for the semi-final, where she ran 25.49s – just outside her outdoor PB.

Kelly lined up in her favoured 200m against the current UK number one, Ella Wansell, and breezed past her to finish in 25.28s.

In her semi-final, she was pipped on the line by 0.03s, however she clocked a huge new PB and new club record of 24.50s to rank her as the country’s number two.

She had to withdraw from the final, however, not wanting to risk a back injury.

Les Hall, who coaches all of the junior athletes, was proud of their achievements and said: "Hannah is now moving away from being an amazing national athlete to something more.

"The qualifying standard for this year’s Youth Commonwealth Games is 24.3 seconds and it is well within her capabilities."

The senior Blue Vests won the men’s team prize at the 35th Lostock 6 six-mile race, courtesy of Tommy Harrison’s silver (32:15) behind Horwich’s Michael Cayton.

M45 leader John Knowles (32:46 – fifth) and M40 bronze Chris Povey (35:26 – 14th) edged ahead of team-mate Dom Gavin (35:30).

Junior Lewis Aldred (37:02) continued to impress with 22nd place in the 274 field, while Ken Fowler collected M60 silver (40:34). Elsewhere locally, the Terry Nortley Radcliffe 10-mile race saw Tom Carson inch his way back to fitness with silver (1:01:06). Stephen Bonney’s 1:09:20 gave him 45th place in the 244 field.