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

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

The fourth member of the travelling party, Aaron Evans, didn’t complete his race after starting out well.

“While it was great to see the 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 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 among 1400 athletes from more than 170 countries in Ostrava.

In Cambridge, Houston ran his fastest time for the 100 metres, 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 in third place with a time of 4:02:76 — his second-fastest time over the distance.

That performance added to a 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, who also earned two medals at the Carifta Games and at the recent National Championships, ran 1.55.58 for the 800 metres.

Armstrong competed in the women’s 800 metres with ten others in the final, finishing with a time of 2.20.09 and earning eighth place which was a performance that came on the heels of an impressive 2.15:09 at the recent National Championships.

Evans withdrew from the men’s 800 metres at around the 600 metres mark.

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