Merseyside has made an outstanding debut at the National Primary Schools Athletics Championships - bringing home a medal at the first time of asking and enduring a couple of near misses.
The Merseyside County Schools Athletic Association and the Liverpool Primary Schools Association combined forces to send a 48-strong team of young athletes to the National Championships in Loughborough.
They were in competition with more than 400 entrants in every race, but remained undaunted.
And Year 5 girls made the biggest impact. Merseyside County champion Valerie Teare led from the front to finish an amazing fifth overall, and lead her year to national silver.
Year 5 boys were led home by Dominic Poulston in 11th place, but missed a medal by just six points.
Year 6 girls were in the possibly the hardest race overall, but Megumi Hoshiko in 20th as first counter was well supported to earn a top 10 finish nationally.
Year 6 boys were in the medal positions until late in the race, when a couple of falls saw them slip to eighth, led in by Oberon Kearney in ninth place overall.
Team manager Ronan Kearney was delighted by his athletes' debut.
"I couldn't be prouder of our kids," he said. "They did their very best on the day, at the toughest competition in the country."
Ronan was assisted on the day by Sarah Phelan of Upton Hall, Vicky Cowan and Margaret Milne of Wirral AC, and Alison Pritchard and Philip Rose of St Edmunds and St Thomas's primary school, Waterloo, who supplied five runners from their school alone.
