Birchfield Harrier Scott Rider crushed the opposition with a first round put of 18.97 metres in the British Athletics League Division One match at Eton on Saturday.

This career-best performance, which was almost a metre further than second placed Emeka Udechuka, should greatly enhance Rider's case for England selection at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Mark Edwards won the B event with 16.75m.

The former World Youth champion Jonathan Moore came out on top in the long jump with a 7.60m leap. Willenhall swimming pool lifeguard Leigh Smith secured maximum points with a 7.31m effort.

Wilfred Taragon who impressed last month with a fourth place in the Great Manchester 10km Road Race behind the legendary Haile Gebrselassie, won the 5,000m by more than a minute in 14:03:33.

Chris Baillie and Ed Dunford were second in their 110m Hurdles races.

Birchfield scored 275 points for a second consecutive fourth-place finish, which takes them one place up to third at the half-way stage in the four-fixtures League series.

Birchfield Ladies won three field-event competitions to defeat Edinburgh Southern Harriers by 2.5 points and finished fourth in their opening UK Women's League match won by Sale Harriers Manchester at a wind swept Wigan.

Lesley Brannan recorded her first A-string victory with a 58.17m hammer throw.

Sarah Henton threw the discus 44.63m whilst Irishwoman Jenny O'Sullivan achieved 43.64m to win the javelin event.

Michelle Thomas was runner up over 400m hurdles in 59.24 secs. n Paula Radcliffe has told the British selectors she is available to run in the 5,000 metres at the Spar European Cup in Portugal later this month.

Radcliffe's presence will bolster a Norwich Union GB side attempting to regain Super League status.

The London Marathon winner was in action over 1,500m at the Prefontaine Grand Prix Classic meeting in Eugene on Saturday and now believes she can do herself justice in Leiria on June 18-19.

"I was always going to do it if I was in shape," said Radcliffe, who was amongst the seven contestants who fell when the US meeting promoters overloaded the race with 17 runners.

"Given how it went here, I hope I'll be in shape to run a decent 5,000 in the cup."

Radcliffe, racing on the track for the first time since failing to finish in the Olympic 10,000m in Athens last summer, finished sixth in a race won by little-known American Christin Wurth.