WORCESTER Athletic Club's senior men's team opened the 2005 track and field season in sparkling fashion.

They landed victory in the first match of Midland League Division Three at Nunnery Wood against seven other teams.

Worcester took the lead from the first event with a double victory in the A and B string pole vault through Glynn Chidlow and Richard Everest.

Chidlow took a comfortable A win with a vault of three metres and Everest, in his first vault competition, took B honours with a new personal best of 2.55 centimetres.

Team captain Andy Poppleton continued the winning start with victory in the 400m hurdles, battling against strong head-winds.

Poppleton finished in a time of 58.2 seconds, over five seconds quicker than his nearest rival.

The race of the day came in the 5,000m with 17-year-old Sam Mitchell involved in a tight battle for the lead with athletes from Birchfield Harriers and Corby.

With 450m to go, Mitchell kicked for home and quickly opened a sizeable lead to win in 16 minutes 32.6 seconds, almost six seconds in front of his nearest rival.

In the B string race, Mark Hill also produced a fine sprint finish to win in 17-3.3.

Excellent performances from all the team and especially the youngest members, Sam Rushall, Mike Simmonds and Edwin Elmhirst, kept the scoreboard ticking.

Heading into the final two events, the relays, Worcester had an unassailable lead.

The relay teams ran a safe and calculated race to take fourth position in the 4x100m relay and third in the 4x400m relay to leave the team on 251.5 points.

They were more than 30 points clear of Notts AC and Bromsgrove and Redditch in second and third place respectively.

Worcester now travel to Corby on June 4 with high hopes of a repeat performance to take a step closer to league victory and promotion.

Anyone interested in trying out track and field athletics can call Jim Cowell on 07739-385162 or e-mail worcesterac@yahoo.co.uk