BRECON junior athletic teams knew they had a fight on their hands when they travelled to Hereford to defend their title.

The lead swapped six times throughout the day between Brecon, Cwmbran and hosts Hereford with never more than seven points separating these top three team and by the end of the day with just the six relay races left Hereford had a one point lead over Brecon with Cwmbran three points behind.

U13s Daniel Gilbert got the day underway by smashing the league record in the 1km race walk by three seconds, posting a time of 5.36.7; he followed this up with a new personal best of 20.82 to finish third in the javelin.

The small team of U11 girls, Lottie Hughson, Louise Williams, Daisy Osbourne, Kathryn Woods spread themselves across as many events as possible; their 57 points total was to prove invaluable in keeping Brecon AC in the title hunt.

The U11 boys comprising of Thomas Hughes, Thomas Edwards, Jayden Wilkinson, Jack Organ, Arthur Bell, Joshua O’Donnell, Thomas Gilbert, Elijah Ritson-Walton and Owen Price-Davies showed their class with some inspired performances across the board.

Jack Organ broke the league record in the 800m in a time of 2.31, Jack, Jayden and Thomas also took first, second and fifth place in the 150m sprints whilst out in the field Elijah and Thomas continued to show their aptitude in the javelin to finish in the top three.

With the rest of the boys finishing high up the standings in the 75m, discus, long jump and shot putt they saved the best for last. They had the honour of sealing Brecon’s historic win by finishing off the very last relay of the day with a new league record dipping under the 60 second mark in 59.94 and totting up 145 points in total.

The U13 boys had Daniel Gilbert to set them rolling with his win in the 1km walk. Iwan Coyle, Rory Orton, Jack Dykes, Ryan Hughes, Tomas Davies and Patrick Devenny-Billinge followed his lead with wins in the discus, shot putt, 1500m and placing high in the standings in the hurdles, long jump, high jump, javelin and 100m to insure they amassed an incredible 173 points towards the Brecon team cause.

Patrick, Daniel, Ryan and Rory finished their day in style coming second in the relay and were one of two team who broke the U13 boys league relay record of 58.70 finishing in 58.66.

The U13 girls did an equally good job amassing 145 points by stepping out of their comfort zone to cover events they either have not done or have very little experience of.

Gwen Davies hurdles debut was thoroughly inspired to finish fourth alongside Lleilani Gethin sprinting home first in her 100m heat, and with Leonora Ritson-Walton leading the way in the javelin, high jump and 800m the girls kept the points rolling in.

Katie Hughson covered all the throwing events of shot, discus and javelin placing well against some stiff opposition. Cerys Wheeler tackled the 1500m and high jump for the first time which put her in confident mood for the relay in which the team finished third.

The U15 girls had a superb day with personal best times for Charlie Price, Willow Ransome, Paige Ballington, Megan Nicholas, Rhiannon Wymann, and Raean McKellar-Horsford.

The trio of Willow, Charlie and Paige lit up the track with inspired sprinting in the 100m, 200m and 300m with Charlie taking the win in the long jump as well.

With the team manager re-jigging the events athletes covered to maximise possible points Rhiannon threw the discus for the first time to come third, Raean jumped clear of the minimum scoring height in high jump and Paige tackled the 80m hurdles.

The quartet of Willow, Paige, Megan and Charlie finished their title bid by cruising to victory in their relay in an impressive 54.36 seconds and a team points tally of 131.

The U15 boys have just got better and better this season with countless records set and new heights reached.

Harvey Parsons got his pole-vaulting technique to click and soared to a new personal best of 2.20m adding 30cm to his last league standing.

Meanwhile Kyle Davies has continued to launch the hammer further and further with each outing; 32.09 saw him comfortably win the hammer event and he put in a string of good shot putt and a personal best javelin throw finishing second to keep points rolling in.

Euan Dykes hit the 200 and 300m in the only way he knows how, hard out and keeping his form to the line to seal top three placings in each.

For once Euan’s sprinting was eclipsed by a last minute decision to do the long jump for the first time which he duly won with a huge jump of 5.28m.

With Sion Coyle taking the 1500m, 100m and long jump in his stride and Harvey the hurdles, the boys went onto storm into second place in the relays racking up 159 points to help Brecon open the gap from the Cwmbran and Hereford teams. The day finished with a nervy wait for all whilst the final result was worked out.

Charlie Northey, Brecon Athletics Club junior coach said: "The sizeable crowd of onlookers erupted with cheers of delight to match those of the athletes on what turned out to be another day of a little piece of club history in the making.

"Thanks must go to all the parents, coaches, officials and helpers who support and give so generously of their time to ensure all the youngsters can train, compete and share in the joys and camaraderie of taking part in of track and field athletics."