FOUR years ago a group of young athletes sat down with their coach and made a pledge to aim for the Sydney Olympics.

Last weekend two of those young hopefuls lined up alongside some of the best athletes in the world at the British Olympic selection meeting.

"Four years ago it was just a dream, we decided to aim for the top, and although the athletes will not be lining up in Sydney no one could imagine what they would achieve," said coach John Woodcock.

That first meeting came with the medal ceremonies of Barcelona still a vivid memory.

"Everyone knew we had to work together and work hard to get anywhere near our target, and the achievement of those young athletes has been fantastic.

"Seven of the 11 who set out on that journey have made it to international honours, and they have all benefited in their personal development," John said.

Anthony Gill, 22, line up alongside Britain's medal hopes in the 110m Hurdles and set a season's best time of 14.4secs. He was eighth fastest qualifier, and if he had been in another heat would have reached the final.

"He had a really good early part of the season, and he's still only 22 year of age. We are still going to be looking at making it to major competitions in the future," John said.

Suzanne Roberts set a new personal best distance of 58m 11cms in the ladies hammer which made her fourth in the British rankings this year.

Although she was outside the Olympic qualifying distance she has increased her personal best by a 10 metres this year and earned selection to represent Great Britain in the France on September 2nd. She will also throw for the Great Britain Under-23 team in Spain later in the month.

Other young athletes are also showing real form. This weekend Oliver Brewer, ben Manchester and Suzanne Roberts will represent Yorkshire in the North of England Inter-County Championships.

"The effort which young athletes put in is tremendous and there are more coming through who are just as enthusiastic," John Woodcock said