TWO youngsters showed the strength of St Joseph School's sport, one by qualifying comfortably for the 400 metres national schools finals in only his second season at athletics.

Joshua Street set a wind-assisted championship record last year in the intermediate (U17) boys 200m and this year stretched to a victory in 49.18 seconds over 400 metres.

The South London Harrier, rated in the top five in the country, will surely be pulled closer to his personal best 48.84 against top class athletes in Birmingham at the schools finals.

At Kingsmeadow he was shadowed throughout the day by one of his coaches, Matthew Thomas, who was among those he thanked, along with another Anne Rodan, and his mother Jennifer, who hailed the "talent at the school".

Asked about the switch to 400m this season, Jennifer said: "It's only his second season in athletics and he holds the championship record for 200m."

Joshua added: "I just want to get faster and faster. I've been concentrating on my GCSEs first and now I've got a massive focus for athletics.

"Today was OK. I've run better but it was good."

The Upper Norwood athlete's school colleague Faraz Rafi, who won U15 silver at the national championships last year, earlier propelled himself up the national rankings in the U17 discus.

That throw was above the 40.00 entry standard for English Schools Championships selection, but short of the 43.00 national standard to guarantee being picked for Surrey, and he said: "I'll need to improve if I'm to get a medal."

Meanwhile a medal should be very much within the grasp of Vanessa La Fon, a pupil at Edenham School, who was at one stage at the top of the national rankings for U15 girls 100 metres.

She is now the Surrey indoor, outdoor and schools champion for the event.

Having run 12.75 in her heats, the Hercules Wimbledon runner won the final in 12.90, after icing a back injury in between races.

She said: "Today I think overall it has kind of shown me it was good for the experience, especially with the pressure of knowing I had to do it to qualify for the national championships."

Thinking of the English Schools on July 9-10 she added: "I'm going for the experience to do as well as I can and hopefully come out of it with a medal."

Croydon Harrier Nathan Carty (Harris Academy) in the junior boys discus, threw 35.33, a personal best, but not quite the national standard 38 metres to qualify for the team automatically.

U17 Sheldon Brown, of Whitgift School, improved his PB in the triple jump to 13.78 to surpass the entry standard.

Trinity's Joe Yarde, ran 13.69 in the 100m hurdles, comfortably within the qualifying standard and cementing his top 10 national ranking.