ST ANNES and St Joseph's are the indoor Athletics champions of the world -- well of Hyndburn at least!

For the Accrington school, topped the table in the Hyndburn Schools World Indoor Athletics Championships, beating favourites St Johns and St Augustines in to second place.

There was a real international flavour to the event with the Saints representing the Republic of Ireland while the remaining 14 schools all donned the shirts of countries from across the world.

And the Irish eyes were smiling in the tightest of contests as they finished with 630 points -- just 19 points clear of St Johns and St Augustines, wearing the dark green of Kenya.

The event was the culmination of a series of heats held at Hyndburn Sport Centre and watching pupils, parents and teachers did the best to create an electric atmosphere.

The young athletes competed in the 13 different track and field disciplines including the relays, standing long jump and triple jump, chest push, speed bounce and the popular soft javelin.

St Johns and St Augustines went in to the event as slight favourites as appeared to justify their top seeding as they were crowned overall boys champions, pipping the eventual winners by just four points.

But it was St Annes and St Joseph's girls team who helped their school to the overall title with a wonderful all-round performance.

The Saints girls team won four events, were joint first in another and were runners-up in four more disciplines as they clocked up 317 points.

The girls team included Alicia King, Frankie McKenna, Frances Waddington, Katie Makey, Naomi Henratty, Maddy McNeil and promising athlete Katie Emmett -- singled out by Commonwealth Games hurdler Katie Jones as a star of the future.

The girls team won the obstacle relay, chest push and 6x1 lap relay and shared first place in the 2x1 lap relay with St Johns and St Augustines.

However, it was the paarlauf -- a six lap relay race where athletes ran a series one and two lap legs -- that the school excelled, finishing first in both the boys and girls events.

It was the only event the boys team won outright but the scored highly throughout the competition, including three second places.

St Johns and St Augustines won the most events on the day with they boys winning the 2x1 lap relay, the standing triple and long jump events, and the 6x1 relay. The girls teams won the 2x1 relay and the sitting throw and soft javelin.

Third placed St Charles, representing Brazil, won four events with the boys winning the obstacle relay, sitting throw and chest push, while the girls won the speed bounce.

St Huberts, in the stars and stripes of the USA, won two events to finish fourth and Baxenden St Johns as France were fifth.

Despite finishing in 10th place overall, Mount Pleasant as Egypt won four events -- the boys obstacle relay and soft javelin and two girls jump events -- and Great Harwood's South Africa finished won three events and finished ninth. The championship was organised by Hyndburn Council's sport, community and recreation office and was a part of the Wide World of Sport programme.

Other schools to take part were Huncoat (Great Britain), West End (Sweden), St Marys (Samoa), St Pauls (Netherlands), St Nicholas (Japan), Sacred Heart (Spain) and St Oswalds (Germany).