Several of the Isle of Man’s leading athletes have been competing in the UK over the last few days with considerable success.

Alex Bell (Manx Harriers) has made massive progress this summer, and he kicked off the local success when he won his 800-metre event at the Trafford Grand Prix in Stretford a week last Tuesday.

His win was decisive and, although his time of 1min 59.31sec was shy of a personal best, he was delighted with another sub-two minute run.

Fellow Manx Harrier Joe Harris underlined the form that has established him as one of the top four javelin throwers in the UK this year with another fine performance at the Loughborough Javelin Festival on Sunday.

His best throw was only five centimetres behind Greg Millar’s winning performance, but these two were well clear of third.

Harris has rediscovered his ’javelin mojo’ this summer and he will be hoping to continue his form into 2022 and the Commonwealth Games.

At Leeds, other Commonwealth hopefuls Sarah Astin (Belgrave Harriers), Rachael Franklin (Ribble Valley Harriers) and David Mullarkey (Manx Harriers) were in action in the Home International Road Relays.

The women raced first in five two-mile legs round the Brownlee Triathlon Centre road circuit. Franklin and Astin both ran leg four representing the North of England and England teams respectively.

Both ran well in windy, cool conditions. Astin’s time of 10m 37s helped her team to the overall win, while Franklin was delighted to dip under 11 minutes and set up her team to take the silver.

This was the latter’s first race for almost 10 months having been sidelined with a foot injury and then contracting Covid in July.

Mullarkey, also running for the North of England, produced a fine performance to help his team secure second place. His time of 9m 13s was the seventh fastest of the day in a total field of 30 runners. Not bad after an early-morning six-hour work shift!

Erika Kelly (Northern AC) and Tom Partington (Manx Harriers) travelled to Cardiff for the Welsh national track championships.

Competing in the 10,000m walk both were looking to post Commonwealth consideration times in one of the few track races available.

Partington walked strongly from the start, shadowing Wales’s number one Guy Thomas for the first half.

Thomas then pulled slightly ahead but was pit-laned in the closing laps, allowing Partington (who had no red cards) to take the lead.

Into the final five laps it was clear that the Laxey man was going to be close to the 43.30 time required, but he missed out by 13 seconds.

It was nevertheless a personal best performance, and he will take renewed confidence into his next races.

In the women’s championship. Kelly was up against the top two walkers from Wales, Bethan Davies and Heather Lewis. Davies came out on top, winning in a personal best time, bettering the her country’s Commonwealth standard time in the process.

Lewis was a strong second, well clear of Kelly who hung on for third.

Pole vaulter Glen Quayle (Shaftesbury Barnet) competed for Great Britain under-20s at the Manchester International track and field meeting yesterday (Wednesday).

This was a fantastic opportunity for the Baldrine teenager, who opens a new chapter in his sporting life today when he travels to America to begin a course at Northern States University in South Dakota.

Ben Sinclair represented Scotland juniors at the same event. He was originally selected for the individual 400m but because of a recent slight injury issue he opted to only do the 4x400m relay.

The two-day Lancashire Track and Field Championships take place at Stanley Park in Blackpool this weekend.

As far as we are aware, none of the local clubs are organising trips to the event as they normally would, but quite a lot of athletes are making their own way to the event.