THE Howorth brothers will head into the Wiltshire Schools’ Track & Field Championships this weekend with their confidence sky high after a superb start to the summer.

Within the space of five days and at two different meetings last week, the three brothers from Hilperton, near Trowbridge, notched up four personal bests.

Pride of place went to John, who twice improved his personal best over 800m to move up to fourth in the South West rankings for U20 men.

The 17-year-old St Augustine’s Catholic College student, who is a member of Team Bath AC, first beat his PB at the British Milers’ Club regional meeting in Exeter last week with a time of one minutes 55.95 seconds.

Then four days later, John shaved another 0.83 seconds off that at the BMC PB Classic meeting at Milton Keynes with 1:55.12.

“It has been quite a tough week but I cannot complain as I am very happy with two PBs,” said John.

“Unfortunately, I am still outside the English Schools’ qualifying standard of 1.54, while in the 1,500m, I am four seconds away.

“I’ll have another go at the 1,500m in the Wiltshire Schools’ Championships this weekend but it is going to be very tough.

"I will be up against a Salisbury runner who already has the qualifying standard, so I don’t suppose he will be interested in helping me get it.

"So I will probably have to try and do it on my own.”

Twin brother Robert also ran a PB at Exeter, clocking 1:56.82 and followed that up with another excellent time of 1:56.96 at Milton Keynes.

Meanwhile 14-year-old Rory ran a PB of 1:57.30 to finish just behind Robert at Milton Keynes so no wonder the Howorth family had plenty to celebrate at the end of the week.

Also at Milton Keynes, one of the best improvements of the day went to John of Gaunt School student Caitlin Wosika, from Trowbridge.

Running her first 1,500m of the season, the teenager smashed her personal best by more than 10 seconds with a time of 4:34.55 to finish fifth in the A race and go sixth in the South West U20 Rankings to sit nicely alongside her first place in the 1,500m steeplechase.

But the honour of biggest PB of the day must surely go to Max Davis, of Avon Valley Runners.

Davis, who is coached by Richard James Ayling, smashed his PB in the 3,000m by a staggering 12 seconds as he clocked 8:54.85 to finish fifth in the B race.

Prior to this season, Davis’ best was 9:30.93 so this summer he has improved massively to leap to second in the South West U17 men’s rankings.