ENFIELD & Haringey’s young athletes did the club proud after being crowned UK champions at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham – beating arch rivals Reading in a titanic battle. Two Cypriots were included Mario Efstathiou and Luke Leon.

Trailing Reading by just half a point towards the closing stages of the final of the UK Athletics Youth Development League (YDL), E&H secured the victory and the title with impressive performances in all of the relays.

E&H had been up against stern opposition from the top clubs around the region in the previous four matches including Blackheath & Bromley, Windsor, Tonbridge and Reading.

With only the top two teams from each region qualifying for the final, E&H did exceptionally well to make it into the Birmingham showdown.

Previously known as the National Young Athletes League, E&H had a strong tradition of success in this competition, winning the title in 2010 and 2011.

Clubs involved in the national final were Rugby, Northants, Swansea, Manchester Sale, Edinburgh, Lisburn (NI) and Liverpool.

The final was a closely fought affair but turned into a three-way battle between E&H, Reading and Rugby.

The final events of the afternoon were tense and nailbiting, and would ultimately determined who would finish where.

Reading had the slightly better strength out on the field, but E&H had the upper hand on the track and their main strength was in the sprint relays.

The extra training and practice paid off and, out of the five relays (including the B15 4x300m), E&H picked up two golds, two silvers and one bronze to secure them the title with a final tally of 600.5 points – just 9.5 points in front of Reading.

Out of 86 scoring events (including ‘A’ and ‘B’ strings but excluding relays), E&H’s young athletes claimed no less than 19 individual gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze medals.

‘A’ string gold medals were achieved by: George Connor (B15 800m, 2:04.52); Sean Bazanye Lutu (B15 80m hurdles,11.7); Jaiden Peart (B15 long jump, 5.97m); Sara Jacob (G15 800m, 2:19.7); Melieka Daley (G13 150m, 19.87); Nathanael Thomas, Oliver O’Sahon Lubel, Niall Bevan and Cairo Sango (B15 4x100m relay, 46.32); Callum Duffy, Mario Efstathiou, Luke Leon and George Connor (B15 4x300m relay, 2:39.75)