The majority of the four junior athletes who have all qualified to represent Bermuda in the IAAF World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic next month turned in outstanding performances at the New England Open Track and Field Championships in Cambridge, Massachusetts last weekend.

Such were the accomplishments of Alexis Armstrong, Harold (Tre) Houston and Matthew Spring that national coach Gerry Swan was beaming with pride this week as he commented on their performances.

The fourth member of the travelling party was Aaron Evans who didn't complete his race after starting out well.

"While it was great to see majority of them perform at a very high level against some prominent competitors, the most important thing was the fact that they got some valuable experience from the event," said Swan.

"We continue to stress the importance for athletes to aim higher, strive to reach their potential and in this case they did exactly that and for this I am indeed proud of them to see what they achieved against collegiate and other adult athletes."

The local athletes, all under 18-years-old, will be competing amid 1400 athletes from more than 170 countries in Ostrava.

Houston ran his fastest time for the 100 metres in Cambridge, recording an impressive 10.74 seconds to earn fourth place in his race.

And in the 200 metres he secured second place with his fastest time to date of 21.42 seconds.

That time was faster than his previous best by more than four tenths of a second. Earlier this year he ran 21.92 at the Carifta Games.

Sixteen year-old Spring led the men's 1500 metres field through the first third of the race. Eric Lonergan, the eventual winner with a time of 4.00.72, then took the lead.

Spring finished the race in third place with a time of 4:02:76 — his second-fastest time over the distance.

That performance adds to the long list of other accomplishments by the highly-rated Spring, who was a recipient of a junior award from the Ministry of Education, Sports and Recreation this past March.

Spring also earned two medals at the Carifta Games and at the recent National Championships ran 1.55.58 for the 800 metres.

Alexis Armstrong competed in the women's 800 metres with ten others in the final and it was a first-time experience for her of having another athlete — an adult and far more experienced runner — to start with, and share, the same lane until the break line.

Alexis finished with a time for the two-lap race of 2.20.09 and earned eighth place which was a performance coming on the heels of an impressive 2.15:09 at the recent National Championships.

Aaron Evans competed in the men's 800 metres but unfortunately did not complete it as he was forced to withdraw at approximately 600 metres.

Bermudian Michael Donawa, now residing in San Diego, California and one of several seniors competing in the games, went on to secure second place in a time of 1.54.31.