A HOST of Armada athletes will head to the English Schools’ Track & Field Championships in confident mood after winning medals at the South West Championships at Exeter on Saturday.
Joe Wake, Rory Summers, Poppy Northcott, Nicolas Maczugowski, Nubia Evans-Shields, Tegan Brown, Phoebe Milburn and Hannah Walker were among those who won regional titles.
As the UK’s number one under-17 discus thrower and reigning English Schools’ champion, Evans-Shields (Plymouth College/City of Plymouth) was always the big favourite to win the South West title and she had no trouble adding another gold to her collection with a throw of 42.60m to win the intermediate girls’ event by more than eight metres.
Tavistock College’s Phoebe Milburn, ranked second in the UK and a previous English Schools’ medallist, 
also had no problems living up to expectations and won the intermediate girls’ hammer event with 52.94m. Tavistock AC and Devon athletes actually filled the first three positions, with Louisa Hess second (45.67m) and Ella Patterson (44.27m) third. All three are in the UK’s top 15 and Devon have selected them all to go to the English Schools’ finals in Birmingham.
Another Tavistock athlete Tegan Brown won the junior girls’ hammer event by more than six metres with a PB throw of 45.34m, which keeps her in the UK top three at under-15 level. Hazel Stead (Devonport High School/Tavistock AC) was third in that event with 34.24m.
To cap a hat-trick of girls’ hammer titles for Tavistock College and AC, Hannah Walker won the senior event with 33.50m.
City of Plymouth’s Poppy Northcott, representing Cornwall and Torpoint School, won the first track title of the day with victory in the intermediate girls’ 300m hurdles in a time of 44.43 seconds.
That was followed by her club team-mate and Tavistock College’s Nicolas Maczugowski winning the intermediate boys’ 400m hurdles in 54.88 seconds.
In the same age group’s 400m flat race, Mount Kelly’s Rory Summers (Tavistock AC) stormed to victory in a PB time of 50.73 seconds.
Tavistock College’s Joe Wake continued his big breakthrough year by winning the junior boys’ 200m in a PB time of 23.80 seconds and coming second in the 100m in 11.56, which was also a PB.
Wake’s Devon team-mate David Oldfield (Coombe Dean/City of Plymouth) just missed out on joining him on the podium by finishing fourth in the 200m (24.15) and fifth in the 100m (11.84).
There was a great race in the intermediate boys’ 100m hurdles where three of the top five times in the UK were posted and less than 0.2 of a second separated the medallists.
Ivybridge Community College’s Adam Dingley (City of Plymouth) ran a legal PB of 13.26 seconds but had to settle for silver, with his big Devon rival 
Joshua Taylor just edging victory in 13.16 seconds. Somerset’s Toby Wright was third in 13.33 seconds. The top six in the race all ran under 14.9 seconds which showed just how high the standard was in that event.
Tavistock College’s Evie Palmer also just missed out on a title. She took second in the junior girls’ javelin with a PB throw of 34.21m, which keeps her in the UK’s top 10. She finished well clear of the third-placed athlete but was just pipped by Swindon’s Lucy Bull, who threw 35.15m.
There was also a silver medal for her Tavistock AC team-mate Charlotte Doney, who was representing Cornwall. She took second in the junior girls’ discus with 28.69m, with club colleague Orla White (Tavistock College) third with 25.86m. Doney also came fouth in the 200m in 27.67 seconds.
Another Tavistock thrower Ceol Hickman also won a silver medal. His came in the junior boys’ hammer with 27.56m. Club colleague Owen Fileman (Ivybridge) just missed the podium in the intermediate boys’ hammer and discus, finishing fourth in both events with PBs. He threw 43.82m in the hammer and 34.71m in the discus.
Also in the field, there was a bronze medal and a PB for Tavistock’s Katelyn Milburn in the intermediate girls’ triple jump with 10.24m, while Devonport High’s Ella Isaias (City of Plymouth) equalled her PB of 1.66m to take third in the high jump.
City of Plymouth’s Connell McCarthy, representing Cornwall, took bronze in he senior boys’ 200m in 23.02 seconds, with his club team-mate Andreas Isaias (Devonport High) fourth.
There were also senior boys’ bronze medals for City of Plymouth’s Thomas Elliott (Plymstock CC) and Gregor Norster (Devonport High). Elliott’s came in the 400m in 51.32 seconds and Norster’s was achieved in the 800m in 1:58.02 minutes.
Mount Kelly’s Caleb Gifford-Groves just missed the podium in a highly-competitive junior boys’ 800m. He smashed his PB with run of 2:06.89. He has now knocked 12 seconds off his best time in one season and has earned selected for the English Schools’ Championships.
There was a bronze medal for Devonport High School’s Mali Heard (City of Plymouth) in the senior girls’ 400m (61.97).
City of Plymouth’s Molly Shorey (Plymouth College) narrowly missed the podium in a high-quality intermediate girls’ 1,500m with a 4:44.24 minute run, but she has been picked for the English Schools’ finals, which will take place over the weekend of June 30/July 1.
Full results of the South West Schools’ Championships can be found HERE. (Gallery below)
The Devon team to compete at the English Schools’ Championships can be found HERE, while the Cornwall team is available HERE.
Meanwhile, the England Under-20 & U23 Championships also took place at the weekend in Chelmsford.
City of Plymouth’s Henry Curtis came agonisingly close to medalling in the under-20 110m hurdles. He finished fourth in the final in 14.86 seconds, which is also the time he ran in the heats.
Club colleague Ethan Glyde had gone into the event as the number one ranked under-20 in the high jump with 2.15m, however, it just was not his day in Essex and he had to settle for fifth with 2.01m.
Another Plymouth athlete Emily Bee competed in the under-23 event. She came fourth in her heat of the 400m hurdles in 64.76 seconds – just missing out on the final. She also missed out on the 100m hurdles final on her return to England from studying in America.
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