THREE young athletes from the Mid Island Striders club have been offered athletic scholarships to colleges in the US.

Sprinters Keira Hill and Melissa Clarke and long jumper Shianne Smith have excelled athleticly and academically to earn their opportunities for the future.

Striders coach Bill Euler said the club was "excited and extremely proud" of the three 18-year-olds.

"They have worked really hard for this and they've done really well," Euler said. "It's one of things about our club that we like our members to focus on academics as well as athletics. The combined GPA of our team is 3.0-plus. These three girls have all graduated with honours.

"Each year we take our members on a college tour in the US to expose them to college life and to encourage them to strive for a scholarship."

Hill is a dedicated sprinter who has trained hard and has shaved nearly three seconds off her 200 metres time and two seconds off her 100m time, since joing the Striders two years ago. That effort earned her the 2003-04 Olympic Ideals Award.

She earned the highest GPA on the team and of her graduating class and has been offered one athletic and four academic scholarships from four US colleges.

This fall, she will attend Colombia Union College in Tacoma Park, Maryland on an athletic and academic scholarship.

Clarke also joined the Striders in the fall of 2002. With numerous victories and records to her name, Clarke received the Olympic Ideals Award in 2002-03 and was part of the 800m relay team that placed fifth out of 80 teams at the Holiday Indoor Classic in New York.

Clarke graduated as the Salutatorian of her class and was nominated for the Outstanding Teen Award.

Three universities ? Portland State, Illinois State and Baylor ? have offered Clarke athletic scholarships. She intends to study kinesiology.

Smith has been training with the Striders for four years, though she has been an official member for only one year.

Her best jump came at the Inter-school Sports Meet in 2002 when she jumped 18ft 8in, the jump which earned her the scholarship offers from Florida State and Georgia Tech.She graduated two years ago from Bermuda High School and is a second-year student at Bermuda College.

Smith is currently training with coach Randall King in Orlando, Florida. King is half Bermudian and has consistently helped to forge links between the Striders and US colleges, Euler said.

The other coaches of the three athletes have been Euler himself, Renalda Swan, Tony Bean and coaching consultant Steve Burgess.

The Striders will be sending a team including Clarke, Hill and Smith, to the AAU Junior Olympics in Orlando next week. Also going will be 15-year-old Whitney Matthew, who won the 400m and placed second in the 200m in the corresponding meet last year, when the Striders took seven athletes and brought home 11 medals.

And the club will also compete in its seventh overseas meet of the year in the East Coast Invitational at Greenboro, North Carolina from July 21-27. There, Clarke, Smith and Matthew will be joined by two 17-year-olds, Eric Sanchez and Eric Berkeley and possibly by 13-year-old Rachel Weeks as well.