All's big on the Preston front!

James Preston warmed up for next week's English Schools' Track andField Championships with a double victory in the Under-15 shot anddiscus at the latest National Young Athletes' League fixture.

The 13-year-old Bristol & West athlete may be a rookie in thesport but, at 6ft 3ins and weighing in at 18 stones, he certainlycuts an impressive figure.

"There is no doubt James has a lot of talent and has already donereally well this season," said his coach Hilary Nash.

Preston, a student at The Grange School in Warmley, has beenselected for the junior boys' shot putt, having improved his personalbest from 11.51m to 13.04m this summer.

"I am very pleased with the way things have gone and I seem to begetting better and better," said Preston.

"I'm not sure how I will get on at the English Schools'Championships, I haven't really thought about it yet."

Preston was encouraged to take up athletics by his school lastsummer and won a place in the Avon Sports Hall team during the winterbefore linking up with Nash at Bristol & West AC.

Now barely a year after taking up the sport, he will be mixing itwith the best junior athletes in the country at Birmingham'sAlexander Stadium from July 8-9.

Preston's wins at Solihull on Sunday helped Bristol & West finishrunners-up behind the host club with Charnwood, Yate and Leicesterfilling the next three places.

In the Under-17s, Joel Hartley and Rob Trinick dominated thehorizontal jumps while Joel Chamberlin, Alex Broomsgrove, Matthew Dewand Jonathon Angrove featured prominently in the throws.

Richard Peters won the 3000m impressively while Chris Knight, BenRobinson, Nick Todd and Jamie Golding did well in the middledistances.

Sarah Smart was just below her best in the long and triple jumpsand ran a creditable time in the 80m hurdle race.

Lucy Taylor showed a range of abilities in the Under-15s whileDaisy Da Silva, one of the youngest team members, set PBs of 1.30min the Under-13 girls' high jump and 3.83m in the long jump.

The top performance of the day came from Yate's Emily Fitzhugh,whose victory in the Under-13 girls' 1200m in 3:56.8 earned her thefemale track athlete of the match award.

David Burns, who will be running the junior 800m at the EnglishSchools', improved his 400m PB to 54.6secs.