CITY of Plymouth’s Nubia Evans-Shields, Molly Shorey and Noah Jones and Tavistock’s Edward Fileman, Owen Fileman and Nicolas Maczugowski broke records at the Devon County Championships held at Exeter on Sunday.
Evans-Shields and Maczugowski were multi-title winners, as were Plymouth’s Connell McCarthy, Kinga Kudzia, Aaron Miller and Toby Clayden and Tavistock’s Hannah Gellatly, Rory Summer and Jamie Bulbring.
Plymouth’s Ben Foster, Sammie Harris and Danny Filewod and Erme Valley’s Angus Harris also caught the eye by claiming wins with performances that moved them high up the UK rankings.
Harris won a strong under-20 women’s hurdles in 14.17 seconds, which has moved her up to third in the UK rankings. She has twice run under 14 seconds this season but they were both wind-assisted. She beat Exeter’s Emily Tyrrell (14.59) and team-mate Emily Bee (14.88) for the Devon title.
Harris also won a silver medal in the 100m flat in 12.67 seconds in a race where just 0.02 seconds separated the top three.
Bee, meanwhile, won the under-20 high jump with 1.60m and came second in the long jump with 5.41m.
Club colleague Evans-Shields won three gold medals in the under-13 girls’ throwing events. She broke the championship record in the discus with 31.44m. Although she has twice thrown further this year no-one else in the country has managed that distance. She also won the hammer with a championship best performance of 20.12m and the shot with 7.62m.
Fellow Plymouth thrower Foster smashed his shot PB with a 14.28m throw to win gold in the under-17 boys’ category. His previous best before the weekend was 13.89m. He is now ranked seventh in the UK.
Maczugowski broke the under-13 boys’ shot record with 8.89m. He also won the high jump with 1.35m and took silver in the 75m hurdles in 13.85 seconds.
Tavistock colleague Edward Fileman broke the under-17 hammer record with a throw of 55.82m. He has managed 60.01m this year, which ranks him fourth in the UK.
Owen Fileman broke the under-13 hammer record to take gold. He also took silver in the discus and bronze in the javelin.
Hannah Gellatly took victory in the under-17 women’s hammer with a 38.72m and also took gold in the discus.
Erme Valley’s Angus Harris impressed in the under-13 javelin where he threw 33.08m to take gold. That was a five-metre PB and ranks him eighth in the UK.
Tavistock’s Lois Fileman threw 40.97m to win the under-20 women’s hammer. There were also throwing gold medals for Tavistock’s Hannah Walker (under-15 discus) and Plymouth’s Dade Weston (men’s discus), Phoebe Milburn (under-13 javelin) and Libby Fitzgerald (under-15 hammer).
Plymouth’s Molly Shorey smashed the championship record for the under-13 girls’ 1,500m with a stunning time of 4:54.50. She knocked 10 seconds off the record England Schools’ international Scarlett Livingstone had set the previous year. Shorey is currently ranked sixth in the UK.
Tavistock’s Amelia Riggott won the under-15 girls’ 1,500m in 4:59.30, while team-mate Natasha Farrington was first under-20 and Elyse Kedzior-MacDonough second under-17 over the same distance.
Another Tavistock athlete, Joe Beaton, took gold in the under-17 men’s 1,500m in 4:21.78.
Plymouth’s Verity Tank won the under-13 800m in 2:34.16, with team-mate Isabella Morris taking second and Tavistock’s Matilda Riggott bronze.
Erme Valley’s Ella Isaias took silver in the under-15 800m in 2:29.58, but she did win the high jump with 1.55m.
Plymouth’s Noah Jones broke the championship pole vault record in the under-15 boys’ category with a leap of 3.10m. He has jumped 3.23m this season to rank him fourth in the UK.
There were some impressive sprinting performances at Exeter.
Plymouth’s Connell McCarthy ran new PB times to win both the under-15 boys’ 100m and 200m. He clocked 12.17 seconds for the 100m and 24.67 for the 200m. He also won the long jump with 5.48m.
Club colleague Aaron Miller won the senior men’s 100m and 200m in 11.64 and 24.12 seconds, respectively, while fellow Plymouth athlete Robert Thomas won the under-17 100m in 12.01 seconds and took second in the 200m with 24.07.
Tavistock’s Rory Summer won the under-13 boys’ 100m and 200m.
City of Plymouth’s sprinting strength was shown in the under-15 girls’ 100m where they filled five of the top six spots. Kinga Kudzia won in a PB time of 12.88 seconds, with Lili Fern second (13.08), Janea Oligan third (13.33), Mali Heard fifth (13.44) and Neve Dann sixth (13.83).
Heard won the 200m in 26.87 seconds, with Fern second in 27.20 seconds.
Kudzia also won gold in the 75m hurdles and took bronze in the long jump.
Tavistock’s Jamie Bulbring took glory in the under-17 100m in 13.00 seconds, with Erme Valley’s Paige Johnson second in 13.58. Bulbring also won the 300m in 42.41 seconds, while team-mate Jade Kinsey took gold in the senior women’s 400m in 60.28 seconds, having won bronze in the 200m, with colleague Jenny Milburn winning the under-20 race in 61.65.
Plymouth’s Danny Filewod set a new PB of 59.24 seconds to win the under-17 boys’ 400m hurdles, which now ranks him 13th in the UK.
Erme Valley’s Oliver Travers ran 49.84 seconds to win the under-17 girls’ 300m hurdles.
Plymouth’s Toby Clayden jumped over six-metres for the first time to win the under-17 long jump in 6.02m. He also won the triple jump with 12.04m.
Tavistock’s Katelyn Milburn won the under-13 high jump and Plymouth’s Matthew Gilbert claimed victory in the senior men’s high jump.
Plymouth’s Leah Green moved into the UK’s top 20 for the under-15 triple jump by leaping 9.94m to take silver, with team-mate India Stephenson third with 9.02m.
Full results can be found HERE.
Meanwhile, City of Plymouth’s Poppy Tank showed her versatility by running her first 10,000m race at the Pac-12 Championships in Tucson, Arizona.
Tank took part in the event to pick up valuable points for Utah University. The race had to be delayed due to a thunder storm and did not start until after midnight. In the wet conditions and the lateness of the event it turned out to be a real tactical race, but Tank still ran 34:21.21, which ranks her sixth in the UK.
Her performance was praised by Utah’s head coach Kyle Kepler.
“Poppy came up big for us putting some points on the board in the 10K – the first 10K she has ever ran,” said Kepler. “She ran a negative split against some of the best competitors in the country. Against a lot of runners that will be competing in this event in the regionals here in the next couple of weeks. I thought she ran a remarkable race. I think it was a great, gutsy race overall.”
Elsewhere, Erme Valley Harriers’ Sam Trigg marked his return from injury by winning the triple jump at the British League Division One match at Swansea.
Trigg, who has had a frustrating couple of season with injury, jumped 15.56m, which was his best performance since 2017 when he leaped 16.38m to earn a place in the Great Britain team for the World University Games.