SAMUEL Etherington has confirmed that he is a fast rising star in athletics by winning the Under-20 heptathlon title at the Scottish Indoor Championships.

It was the Cartmel lad's first competitive attempt in the event and he added a second title by winning the individual 60 metres hurdles at the same event in Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.

Etherington, 17, who attends Windermere St Annes School, notched up six personal-bests in the heptathlon's seven events en route to claiming the title with 4,576 points, 190pts ahead of his nearest rival. He posted outstanding efforts at 60m (7.54s), long jump (6.49m) and produced a 1.47m improvement in the shot (12.97m). In the only event where he did not record a pb, the high jump, he cleared1.77m before running a blistering 60m hurdles (8.36s) and a having a 2.90m clearance in the pole vault. He rounded off his sensational results with 2.57min for the 1000m run.

With another two years in the age group, he has now his sights set on a place in the Great Britain national squad.

Commonwealth Games decathlon bronze medallist Jamie Quarry, the Sport Development Director at WSA who also used the indoor heptathlon as preparation for the outdoor season said: "Sam scored just 351 points behind my top score of 4,576 as an under-20, and that was not achieved until I was 19 - two years older than Sam is now."

n MATTHEW Wright, 15, from Holme was the sole representative from Kendal AAC at the Scottish Championships but he came home with the Under-17 silver medal in the 60m hurdles after clocking a pb of 8.84sec.