LEADING teenage pole-vaulter Mark Christie, whose blossoming athletics career was featured last year in a television documentary, has broken his ankle.

Now the 16-year-old Gateshead Harrier faces a race against the clock to regain his fitness to win selection for this summer's European Youth Olympic Days in Spain and the World Youth Games in Hungary.

Christie, who won the AAA Under-17 pole vault championship last season, is now on crutches after receiving his injury while playing basketball for his school, St Aidan's, in Sunderland.

The 6ft 4ins tall vaulter was featured in a Channel Four documentary last year after breaking the Durham County Schools record, which had stood since 1984.

And he went from strength to strength, achieving a best-ever height of 4.40m as he went on to win the national title and establish himself as the UK's top performer in his age group.

But Christie suffered a number of set-backs over the winter, when his coach, Joe Wake was rushed to hospital with a serious illness.

Christie underwent an operation on his nose to help his breathing and has been laid low with a flu virus before suffering his ankle injury in a tumble after a basketball tip-off.

His only athletics competition of the winter earned him the Scottish Indoor Under-17 title, but he was disappointed with his winning height of 3.90m, half a metre below his best.

With his coach now fully recovered Christie is hoping that his own return to fitness will not take too long and he has pencilled in the North-East Championships, at Gateshead International Stadium in May, for his return to competition.

Christie has informed UK Athletics of his injury and has been assured he will be considered for this summer's big international competitions as long as he can prove his fitness.

l With athletics hit by the Foot and Mouth crisis - the annual Gosforth Park Relays and the North Yorkshire and South Durham Harrier League fixtures at Richmond were called off at the weekend.

The English Schools Cross Country Championships at Cheltenham on Saturday and the fifth Durham Pine North-East Harrier League meeting at Prudhoe on March 24 have also been postponed