York College's Asha Hibbert played a starring role in North Yorkshire's success at the English Schools Athletics Championships for Combined Events, at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium.

The county's senior girls team were second after the two-day heptatlon event involving sprint hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin and, lastly, the 800m.

Seventeen-year-old Hibbert (York College), in only her first year in the senior age category, produced a tremendous performance to finish eighth in the country with a total score of 4,087 points.

Her individual performances saw her clock 16.27 for 100m hurdles, high jump 1.48m, shot put 7.20m, 200m 26.7s, long jump 4.96m, javelin 25.81m and finished strongly with 2mins 22.1secs in the 800m.

Samantha Wade (Yorkshire Coast College) finished 14th overall with a score of 3,706 points and Kim Bartram (Richmond) finished 19th with 3,292 points.

The trio's total score was 11,085 points to finish second behind the champions Cumbria but more than 400 points ahead of Somerset.

The fourth member of the team was Laura Jarvis (Queen Margarets, Escrick), who struggled with injury throughout the weekend. She finished 28th with 2,527 despite being eventually unable to complete the final event of 800m.

In the intermediate girls competition, 15-year-old Jessica Taylor (The Mount, York) came 28th in a strong field.

She was competing in her first national heptathlon and, in only her first year in the intermediate age category, amassed a total score of 3,570 points despite a disaster in the javelin where she scored no points due to three no throws. Her individual performances in the same events as the senior girls were 12.55 for 80m hurdles, 1.48m, 7.81m, 25.7s, 4.93m, no valid throw and 2.45.30 for 800m.

Jamie Isherwood (Sherburn High School) came 37th overall in the junior boys pentathlon with a score of 1,986 points for the five events of 80m hurdles, shot put, long jump, high jump and 800m, in which his individual performances were 12.5s, 7.96m, 5.22m, 1.43m and 2.38.30 respectively.

Updated: 09:28 Wednesday, September 24, 2003