BRILLIANT teenage pole vaulter Mark Christie has been rewarded for his superb start to the season with a Great Britain Under-20 international debut at Loughborough tomorrow.

Now the 18-year-old Wearsider, who competes in the British League for leading Manchester club Sale Harriers has his sights set on achieving the European Championships qualifying mark of 5.10m. Christie, formerly of Gateshead Harriers, made an impressive start to the new campaign by setting a new record of 4.51m as he won the North-East Under-20 Championship at Shildon.

His next competition produced a personal-best clearance of 4.80m, which earned him the North of England junior men's title and he repeated the clearance as he finished runner-up in the senior men's Inter Counties Championships at Bedford.

Christie is convinced that the European Championships mark is within his capabilities, though it will mean an improvement of 40 centimetres on the 4.70m personal best he started the season with.

Sunderland-based Christie said: "I've been clearing 5.10m in training and I'm sure I can produce that in competition with the right conditions."

* Leading North-East over-40 Rob Hand is hoping to strike gold on his debut in today's British Veterans Track and Field Championships at Derby.

The 41-year-old from Durham won the British Veterans' cross country and 10,000m road race championships last year but had to miss the track championships because of work commitments.

Hand won the British Veterans' 3,000m indoor championship during the winter and hopes to repeat his form over 5,000m at Derby after winning the over-40 section in the Low Fell RC Gateshead 10K.