ON Saturday, for the first time in athletics history, the National Cup Final was determined by men and women's teams contributing to a joint score for their clubs.

Overall the idea proved successful, but in the case of Sale Harriers Manchester the absence of top internationals such as Darren Campbell, Antony Borsumato, Allyn Condon, Jon Wild and Darren Ritchie considerably weakened the possibility of lifting the new trophy.

Lorraine Shaw, the Commonwealth gold medallist, displayed her superb team spirit by winning the hammer then dashing to London to catch a flight to Glasgow for the Great Britain v USA v Russia match the next day.

Danielle Halsall must be the most improved athlete of the season by taking on some of the country's top 400 metre runners and beating them convincingly.

Young Louse Whittaker was once again in brilliant form, winning the 1500 metres in style, and Ann Danson made her farewell performance by clearing 6.10 metres in the long jump.

Julie Crane enjoyed a ding-dong battle in the high jump with UK record holder Susan Jones, but eventually had to be content with a silver medal, a position shared with Donna Riding (800 metres), Rebecca White (triple jump) and Philippa Roles who was runner up in both the shot and discus.

One of the gutsiest performances of the day came from 16-year-old Jenna Hill who ran the 300 metres in a temperature of 90 degrees plus and came third.

Mark Beharrell won the pole vault for the men, Antonie Burke came second in the 400 metres and Gerard Plunkett (javelin) and Mike Floyd (hammer) all collected valuable points.

As a result of the final league match at Birmingham on the following day both the men and women's U20's marched forward as Northern Champions to the National Cup Final on 8th September with Europe beckoning.