CITY of Plymouth’s Jed Hutchings made an impressive 3,000m debut at the Yeovil Distance Open meeting at the weekend.
The under-15 athlete clocked 9:35.20 to finish second on the day and jump straight in at number seven on the UK rankings.
Hutchings is actually the fastest first-year under-15 in the country at both 1,500m and 3,000m.
Another highly-ranked City of Plymouth under-15 athlete, Poppy Northcott, finished as fastest women in the 800m races at the Par Get Back to Competition Series on Saturday.
Northcott, also in her first season at the under-15 age group, clocked 2:22.5 in Cornwall in a heat won by Plymouth Harriers’ veteran John Porter in 2:13.5. City of Plymouth’s Dan Newman came second in the fastest heat in 2:05.6.
Northcott is ranked in the UK’s top 50 at four different individual events this year – 75m hurdles, 200m, 300m and 800m. In the 300m she is in the top 15 this year and also makes the all-time list.
The following day at Par it was the chance of field eventers from the region to impress at the Last Ditch Throws Competition.
Tavistock’s Edward Fileman showed his versatility by winning the under-20 discus and hammer and finishing second in the shot with a new PB.
Fileman is in his first year at under-20 level but is ranked in the UK’s top six at both discus and hammer and is in the top 30 for the shot.
On Sunday, he threw 55.77m for the hammer, 46.87m for the discus and 12.76m in the shot.
Club colleagues Phoebe Milburn and Louisa Hess are both ranked in the UK’s top 10 for the under-15 girls’ hammer and they showed why at Par by finishing first and second with 37.73m and 36.18m, respectively. There was also a PB for team-mate Lucy Wilkinson with 27.11m.
Milburn also threw 8.74m to finish second in her age category in the shot and set a new PB of 19.29 in the discus. Hess was third in the shot with 8.41m.
Tavistock’s Charlotte Walker won the under-15 girls’ javelin with 21.98m. She was also second in the discus with 23.95m and threw a PB of 7.85m in the shot. Hannah Walker claimed PBs in the shot (7.98m) and discus (18.18m).
Team-mate Harry Tomlin is ranked in the top 24 at both the under-17 shot and javelin and he won both those events in Cornwall with throws of 12.15m and 45.26m.
Lois Fileman, ranked fifth in the country in the under-20 hammer, eased to victory in that event at Par with a throw of 46.95m.
Owen Fileman is ranked in the UK’s top 11 at hammer, shot and discus at under-13 level. He actually tops the standings in the hammer and comfortably won that event on Sunday with 26.09m. He also won his age category in the shot with 7.66m.
City of Plymouth’s Nicolas Maczugowski moved up to 21st in the UK under-15 discus rankings with a PB throw of 31.34m in Cornwall. That beat his old best mark by 1.25m. He also threw 10.30m in the shot.
Also at the weekend, Plymouth’s Henry Curtis, who is ranked sixth in the under-17 100m hurdles rankings, took victory over the sprint barriers at the Midlands Open in Nuneaton. Conditions, though, were not helpful for a fast time. Running into a strong head wind Curtis clocked 14.13 seconds to take victory.
Curtis also made his debut at 400m hurdles at Nuneaton and clocked 61.83 seconds to go straight into the UK rankings at number 15.
Away from the track, Tavistock Run Project’s Chris Rimmer took third place in the Power Run Exeter 10k with a time of 32.58 minutes. His club colleague Jim Cole came seventh in 34.07 minutes.
There was also a high quality 5k event at Exeter Racecourse which saw Run Project’s Jordan Andrews finish fifth in 16.10 minutes and Tavistock AC’s Adam Holland come 10th (16.42).