In a competition won by Beijing bound Zoe Derham, Gair finished in third place.

Throwing over 59 metres on three occasions during the competition Rachel ended with a personal best of 59.82 metres - adding over 1.5 metres to her previous best - and will be delighted she has been able to replicate her training form in competition.

James Mee also found good form while mixing with the country’s best.

Running in the 3000m at the Trafford Grand Prix BMC meeting, Mee recorded a new Mansfield Harriers U20 club record of 8:37.05.

This record has stood for six years and was previously held by Ricky Soos who went on to represent GB in the 2004 Athens Olympics over 800 metres.

The performances of both Rachel Gair and James Mee continue to help inspire Mansfield’s youngsters who were in action at Cannock in the final fixture of the 2008 National Young Athletes League.

With only six U17 Boys able to make the journey expectations of this age group were low. However, their commitment on the day was fantastic.

Adam Sansom, fresh from a PB in last weekend’s English Schools Championships, scored valuable points with victory in the A string 400m Hurdles and Triple Jump and took second in the Long Jump.

Sansom then went on to bow out of this league in style, taking over on the final leg of the 4x400m relay with Harriers in third place.

Closing the gap he took the team into second and then 40 metres from the line dropped the baton – after a moment of panic he looked round, picked up the baton, saw the incoming athlete chasing him and managed a miraculous recovery to retain second place.

Ollie Fell took a break from sprinting due to injury but managed to improve further on his field event scores – taking second in the A string shot with 9.04m and first in the B string Discus with a best throw of 25.42m before going on to take the B string Triple Jump in 11.10 metres.

Greg Millar scored good points in the throws with a win in the A string Javelin with 43.20m and second place spots in the A string Discus and B string Shot.

Richie Talbot made it a double in the Javelin with victory in the B string to add to his earlier victory in the 3000 metres.

Daniel Ward showed what a great team player he has been in this league this season taking on the tough events of 400m Hurdles, 1500m and 3000m and then dropping in as a late replacement in the 4x400m relay.

Nick Phillips completed the line up with his best performance being a second place spot in the B string Long Jump before going on to run a great third leg in the 4x400m relay.

Connor McHale and Tom Wallett were the stars at U15 boys level, taking A and B string in the Pole Vault.