during a meet in Salem, North Carolina.

Maria Darby, Sasha Christensen, Alex Froncioni, Leila Wadson and Christina White all performed well enough to make the trip to Florida this month.

All five taking part in the meet -- along with Rowan Hallett -- are Level Nine gymnasts, while Shauntiah Rawlins, a Level Eight, also competed in the USAIGC Regionals.

White finished eighth in the floor event with an overall score of 34.600.

Darby (33.775), Christensen (33.700), Froncioni (33.050) and Wadson (33.000) also placed well.

Rawlins' performance in the Level Eight event brought high praise from head coach Walid Mustafa. He said she was "awesome'' following a floor event score of 9.1 which gave her an overall total of 34.025.

Rawlins, along with White, Froncioni, Darby and Casey Lopes, recently attended Bela Korolyi's gymnastic camp in Texas, using the time to learn new dance work as well as new techniques for current skills.

The gymnasts roomed with the US 2004 Olympic team hopefuls. Mustafa added: "US National team coaches complimented our gymnasts on their hard work -- the nicest compliment we could get. The girls were focused, trained as hard as they could and showed everybody they were there to learn.'' Earlier, a second competitive team of younger gymnasts attended their first overseas meet, participating in the North Carolina State Championships at the Prep Novice level.

Ten-year-olds Casey Lopes, Kalena Astwood, Katrina Williams and nine-year- olds Kaliane Marshall and Brittany Repose were joined by Alex Furtado and Kristin Heyliger, both aged eight, and the youngest of the team, seven-year-old Jasmine Brunson.

SMITH WINS AGAIN RUN MAR Smith wins again Kavin Smith continued his all-conquering year by winning the Swans Flat Five Miler along North Shore Road on Sunday evening.

Smith, who won the May 24 Marathon Derby by a four-and-a-half minutes last week, broke the tape in a time of 26 minutes, 18 seconds.

His closest rival Brett Forgesson was more than a minute behind in 27:19 and placing third, a further 17 seconds back, was Tracy Wright.

Sylvester Jean-Pierre's time of 27:48 earned him fourth place overall and the masters class title.

Anna Eatherley, whose dominance of women's road running has matched Smith's in the men's category, followed up her Marathon Derby win with another victory, in a time of 30:06, which gave her 10th place overall.

Eatherley's closest challenger was Georgia Belboda, who continued her excellent season with a time of 32:57, with Marina Jones the third woman to finish in 33:14.

Teenager Mark Morrison managed to keep up a sub-six-minute mile pace to win the junior category and place seventh overall in 29:22.

In the senior men's class, Bill Ledrew was a comprehensive winner, clocking an impressive 30:28, to earn him 11th place overall, while Kim Mason was the top female master.