THE Howorth brothers of Hilperton have got the New Year off to a flying start with a clutch of personal bests on the boards in London.

Twins John and Robert were joined by new England international Rory at Lee Valley for the New Year’s Day Open Indoor meeting along with Jenna Blundell of Bradford on Avon.

John grabbed the headlines as he broke the landmark barrier of two minutes for 800m for the first time in his career with a sizzling mark of 1mins 59.76secs, shaving 0.54secs off his previous best set in 2016.

“It was a great feeling to finally break two minutes as I have been trying to do that for a long time,” said John.

“I was hoping to do it last summer but it just didn’t quite happen. I have been keeping up my speed work so was hoping for a good run on Sunday but obviously wasn’t sure how my first race of the season indoors would go.

“If anything I probably went out too hard but I wanted to make it fast (27secs at 200m and 56secs at halfway was certainly that) so I have come away from the meeting very happy indeed.”

Unfortunately, Robert was put into the next heat of the 800m, which wasn’t as quick, but nonetheless he was rewarded with a PB of 2:03.01 to carve 1.91secs off his 2016 best.

Fresh from his exploits at the British Schools’ Indoor Combined Events Championships in Ireland last month, in which he finished third and helped England win the team event, Rory opted to tackle the 60m and 400m at Lee Valley and carried on where he left off 2016 with personal bests of 8.09secs and 54.33secs.

Admittedly it was his first time over 400m and there is every prospect he can bring that down considerably before the end of the indoor season.

Fellow Team Bath athlete Blundell, who is coached by Julie Alexander, tackled three events and was rewarded with one personal best.

That came in the shot as the teenager threw 9.94m to add 35cms to her 2016 best while in the 60m she clocked 8.14secs, which was just 0.04secs off her best mark last winter and in the 800m 2:33.03.