NORTH-EAST sprint double record breaker Yousef Aliu underlined his chances of a medal in next month's English Schools Championships with two more unbeatable performances in the annual Inter-Counties Schools fixture on home ground at Middlesbrough.

The 15-year-old St David's School pupil, who tops his age-group UK rankings in the 100m and is third in the 200m lists, shone in the showers which soaked the Clairville track to earn maximum points for Cleveland in the match against Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria.

After the runners were brought back following a false start in the 100m Aliu was uncharacteristically slow out of his blocks. But he quickly caught his rivals, pushing into the lead halfway down the straight and storming home in 11.5 secs - four tenths of a second slower than his time the previous weekend, but still enough to beat his nearest rival, team-mate Richard Kilty, by five metres.

Aliu was quickly into his stride in the 200m, cruising past his rivals on the inside to win in a better time of 23.9 secs, nine-tenths of a second faster than the runner up even though he was easing off near the line.

The exciting Teessider went on to anchor Cleveland to victory in the 4 x 100m relay and now has high hopes of winning a medal in next month's English Schools Championships at Gateshead.

Another Cleveland athlete with high hopes of a medal at the highest level in school sport, Jonathan Taylor, the Northern and North-East under-17 1500m champion, was again triumphant in the four-lap event in a time of 4 mins 9.0 secs.

Several athletes obtained the required English Schools qualifying marks, including Durham's stylish middle-distance runner, Khalid Thompson.

The Shildon athlete, Northern Under-15 3000m champion and North-East gold medallist over 800m and 1500m, clocked 4 mins 21.7 secs over four laps, beating Durham team-mate Karl Smith by nearly four seconds.

Another Durham athlete, Samantha Coleby, ran a perfect race to win the junior girls 75m hurdles, though her time of 11.6 secs was slightly slower than her best-ever performance in the county championships the previous week, though it was slill a full second faster than the runner-up.

Chester-le-Street's Lorna McMichael followed up on her record-breaking time of 44.5, winning the Durham championship with another comfortable victory in the intermediate girls' 300m hurdles, this time in a time of 44.5 secs - two seconds clear of her nearest rival.

While many athletes were celebrating qualification for the English Schools Championships, Northumberland's Nathan Shrubb was left nursing severe bruising after crashing out of the senior boys' 2000m steeplechase.

It had been decided that the former Northern cross country champion should run with the intermediate 1500m steeplechasers and Shrubb was on schedule to achieve the English Schools qualifying time when he had to overtake one of the younger runners and slipped off a barrier on the penultimate lap, falling heavily and having to be helped off the track.

Overall match result: 1 Durham 608 pts; 2 Northumberland 470; 3 Cumbria 440; 4 Cleveland 430.