THERE were some UK top 10 performances and a host of personal bests as Tavistock AC hosted an autumn series meeting on Wednesday evening.
The event was aimed at athletes from Tavistock, City of Plymouth and Erme Valley Harriers. It was an extra chance for them to compete after most of the 2020 season was wiped out due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There was a good under-15 boys’ 80m hurdles event which saw City of Plymouth pair Nicolas Maczugowski and Adam Dingley go head to head – and both ended up with new personal bests.
Maczugowski won in a time of 12.3 seconds, which moves him into the UK’s top 10, while Dingley, who finished strongly, clocked 12.8 seconds, which ranks him 21st in the country.
The girls’ under-15 70m hurdles was even tighter with just 0.1 of a second separating Tavistock’s Evie Palmer (14.7) from City of Plymouth’s Saskia Brisley (14.8).
Tavistock’s Edward Fileman moved up to fifth in the UK under-20 discus rankings with a PB throw of 47.43m, which was a three-metre improvement on his previous best achieved the previous weekend.
UK under-15 girls’ number one discus thrower, City of Plymouth’s Nubia Evans-Shields continued her incredibly consistent high-class season with a distance of 33.01m on Wednesday evening. She leads the national rankings by one-and-a-half metres with a best of 35.46m and she is one of only two athletes in the country to have thrown over 33 metres this year.
Tavistock’s Owen Fileman is ranked fourth in the UK in the boys’ under-13 discus rankings and he won on Wednesday with 22.03m.
Lois Fileman, ranked 14th in the UK under-20 women’s discus, also triumphed in midweek with 34.81m.
There was a personal best for Tavistock’s Anna Wilkinson of 15.54m on her way to winning the under-13 girls’ event.
City of Plymouth veteran Daniel Clayden took victory in the men’s javelin with 34.31m, while Noah Jones set a PB of 26.87m to triumph in the under-17 age group.
One of the highlights on Wednesday were the 800m races that, thanks to the pace making of City of Plymouth’s Dean Smith and British Championship 1,500m finalist Mike Wilsmore, produced a host of PBs.
Erme Valley Harriers’ Nathan Brown ended a two-year wait for a new PB by triumphing in the men’s race. Wilsmore set a perfect pace for the main race and Brown took advantage to run 1:55.0, which was more than a second faster than he had previous run for the two-lap race.
Exeter’s under-17 athlete Oliver Capps went under two minutes for the first time with a 1:59.0 run. City of Plymouth’s Dan Newman was third in 2:02.0, while under-17 club colleague Oliver Woodman was fourth in a big PB of 2:02.5.
There were also PBs in the race before for Tavistock’s William Russell (U17, 2:08.6), Erme Valley’s Jamie Frost (U20, 2:10.0) and Tavistock’s Joe Dix (U17, 2:10.1).
Ewan Dix smashed his PB by 13 seconds to finish as first under-15 boy with a time of 2:13.9.
Club colleagues Amelia Riggott (U17, 2:30.7), Charlotte Walker (U15, 2:32.9) and Claudia Jones (U13, 2:43.2) also won their categories over the two-lap distance.
Another Tavistock athlete, Joe Wheeler, showed his speed over 400m by winning the under-17 category in 52.1 seconds. Plymouth’s Thomas Elliott was second quickest in 53.0.
Erme Valley’s Samantha Miller won the under-17 girls’ 300m in 47.0.
Tavistock’s James Wheeler took victory in the under-17 boys’ 100m in 11.6 seconds, with team-mate Jared Hunter setting a new PB of 12.3 seconds in that category.
Plymouth’s Toby Clayden was first under-20 in a PB of 11.7 seconds.
There was a thrilling under-15 boys’ 100m race with just 0.2 seconds separating the top three. Tavistock’s Rory Summers won in 12.5 seconds, with Nicolas Maczugowski second in 12.7 and his Plymouth colleague Thomas Sanders third with the same time, which was a new best for him.
Just 0.1 of a second separated the Tavistock pair of Grace Wonnacott (14.4) and Georgia Buckingham (14.5) in the girls’ under-15 100m, while Anna Wilkinson was fastest under-13 girl.
Full results can be found HERE.
Meanwhile, City of Plymouth’s British champion David King continued his consistent season by finishing fourth in a strong 110m hurdles field at the Gala dei Castelli meeting in Switzerland.
King clocked 13.62 seconds and was only beaten by American Aaron Mallet (13.34), Switzerland’s Jason Joseph (13.40) and South African Antonio Alkana (13.40).