POLE VAULT ace Ashley Swain soared to a personal best and club record as Team Solent defied a catalogue of disasters in the team to qualify for their second successive Golden Jubilee Cup final at Bedford next month.

The 22-year-old Rownhams lad followed up his senior British international debut with a cool 5.35 metre clearance at Barnet Copthall - the perfect warm-up for this weekend's AAA National Championships at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium.

Although all was well that ended well with Solent comfortably grabbing the required top-two slot behind Woodford Green & Essex Ladies, team managers Terese Swain and Coral Rogers had their fair share of headaches along the way.

Early in the match Ruth Brereton, runner-up in the flat 400m, was on course for a repeat position in the hurdles until she crashed disastrously at the eighth barrier and failed to finish.

Fellow one-lapper Simon Ciaravella withdrew from the men's 400m with a knee problem and Simon Fricker pulled out after just one throw of the discus with a shoulder strain and was unable to compete in the shot.

Despite those setbacks, Solent put up an excellent performance on a hot, windy afternoon in north London and none more so than Swain, even though he almost came a cropper at his opening height!

With the opposition done and dusted by the 4.80 mark, the Loughborough-based youngster came in confidently at five metres - 30 centimetres below his personal best - but only sneaked over at his third attempt.

He said: "I kept them all sweating! My mum (team manager Terese) and Mike Smith (club chairman) nearly had heart failure when I failed with the first two attempts."

Knowing he already won the competition, Swain cleared 5.20 at the second time of asking then needed another three attempts to create a new personal best and club record.

He then requested the bar be raised to 5.45, but confessed: "I was a bit knackered by then. Because I was vaulting on my own, there was no rest between jumps and I had no competition to spur me on. Once you've cleared a p.b. you tend to feel a bit flat in any case."

Though Swain had initially set his season's target at 5.40, he has two good reasons to go that extra five centimetres. For one thing, it's the qualification mark for next month's World University Games in South Korea and, for another, it will ensure he continues to get Lottery funding next season.

Swain, who also anchored Solent's 4x100m men to a sharp 43-second win, dedicated his success to his 14-year-old brother, Carl, who was rushed to hospital on Saturday morning with appendicitis.

The pole vault ace smiled: "Carl used to do athletics, but he's more of a golfer now. All he was worried about was getting out of hospital before Tiger Woods had finished his round."

For the women, Commonwealth Games relay silver medallist Mel Purkiss was a class above the rest, winning the 200m in 24.4 and running a relaxed anchor leg for the winning 4x400m team.

High hurdler Emma Duck scored a surprise 12.4 win over 100m flat as well as finishing a strong runner-up in her specialist event.

Ceri Mitchell led the 1500m home and there was more pole vault success from Clare Ridgley with a 3.70 clearance. Vicki Foster was her usual dependable self, bagging precious points in all four throws.