BOTH the men’s and women’s Sportingbet Channel Islands Athletics Club teams got their National League campaigns off to a fine start at the weekend.

The women, competing in Division IV of the UK Women’s League in Newport, finished fourth and the men, competing in Division III of the British Athletics League in Kingston, were sixth.

The men’s team recovered well in the final two relay events to propel themselves up to sixth after being in eighth earlier. A third place by the 4 x 100m sprint relay team of Ben Silva, Stephen Prosser, Tom Druce and David Martin was followed by a thrilling win in the 4 x 400m relay which featured Jersey’s Peter Irving.

Irving (pictured) rounded off a strong day with that success, having earlier claimed valuable points by coming second in the B 400m, third in the 110m hurdles and first in the 400m hurdles.

The performance of the day for the women came from Jersey Spartan Sophie Twinam (18) when she set a personal best on her way to winning the 400m hurdles and also won the high jump, while Guernsey’s Kylie Robilliard, who was third in three events, also boosted the score with a great performance.