Athletics: Wrexham athletes to race in England.

Byline: By GARETH HUGHES

WREXHAM athletes will be turning out in the North of England Track and Field League this summer as well as the Welsh League.

In recent years the club has fielded much weakened teams in the Welsh League, partly because of the time and cost involved in travelling to South Wales so many times.

Club secretary Bob Frost said: "The cumulative effect for some athletes travelling down for internationals, championships, national squad sessions, academy sessions, schools competitions, league meetings and assessments etc is enormous."

There were more excellent performances by North Wales athletes in the Celtic Indoor Cup and Under-20 International in Cardiff, held in conjunction with the U16 Celtic Schools International.

Wrexham's Chloe Jones equalled her PB in the long jump with a leap of 5.13 to give her second place behind Scotland's Andrea Gaffney, and Jack McDonald (Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan) also set a new PB in the 60m hurdles.

Megan Rogers (Wrexham), who was competing as a guest in the long jump, also set a new PB of 5.40 and Deeside's Hannah Pendlebury equalled her best of 7.74 in the senior 60m sprint, finishing second.

In the 1,500m Rebecca Nuttall (Liverpool) was the first senior home but she finished behind U20s Vicky Fouhy (Scotland) and Natasha Cockram (Wales).

Though he competed relatively little last year, Eryri's Alun Vaughan topped the North Wales road rankings in the 5k, five miles and half-marathon.

The leading athletes were: 5k: Alun Vaughan 14.41, Caernarfon, Sarah Ridgway (Eryri) 17.53, Caernarfon; 5m: Vaughan 25.19, Sefton Park, Marilyn Kitching (Tattenhall) 30.02, Alsager; 10k: Nick Swinburn (Bangor Uni) 30.46, Wrexham; Emma Parry (Wrexham) 37.14, Trafford. 10m: Gwyn Owen (Eryri) 55.35, Wrexham; Kitching 64.07, Wrexham; Half-marathon: Vaughan 69.47, Blackpool; Parry 81.34, Wrexham.

THE only local race this weekend is the annual Farndon 10k, which takes place on Sunday.

CAPTION(S):

Wrexham's Chloe Jones