The weekend was a very successful one for Northern AC middle-distance runner Sam Perry, who completed a Men's U20 gold medal double at the Northern Athletics Championships in Derby.

On Saturday, Perry contested the 1,500 metres, which proved to be a thrilling race.

In a field of nine, he won in a time of 4:00.05, just 0.11 of a second clear of Liam Johnson of St Helens Sutton.

On Sunday, after negotiating his 800 metres heat in the morning, he won the final later in the day in a time of 1:55.68, a margin of nearly one second over Luke Parker of Rotherham Harriers.

The Northern AC man was very happy with his weekend’s work in his final shakedown before the Island Games, commenting: ‘The 1500m was close. I know Liam Johnson quite well from when I trained with his group last year.

‘I knew I could out-kick him, but he was a little bit closer to me than I expected.

‘The 800m heat was harder than anticipated, I felt really drained from the 1500 but I pulled through.

‘The final was just great, I felt fresh for it which I was surprised about. I went straight to the back of the group, then after about 300 metres the pack started to break so I made a quick burst to get with it and three of us broke from the rest of the pack.

‘We went through the bell in 59 seconds and then it just got gradually quicker. In the last 100m I got up to second, then in the last 40m I kicked past to take the win.’

There were two other medals for island athletes in the women's 100m finals. Carla Teece (Northern AC) was the silver medallist in the U20 race in a time of 12.59 seconds, and in the senior race Meghan Pilley (Manx Harriers) won the bronze medal in a time of 12.16 seconds, having earlier clocked 12.17 in her heat.

DAVID GRIFFITHS